Plagiarized
by simple charm
Summary: Poor Sakura. Sasuke's plagarized her article, and no one believes her. What's worse is that he claims that she plagarized him! Eventual Sasuke X Sakura
1. Introduce Me

Edit: I changed the advice column... again. Just so you know.

You're all probably thinking, _oh no, not another high school fic._

Here's my reply: oh yes, another high school fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And if I did, I'd pick a less cliched main character.

_Plagerized_

_Chapter 1: Introduce Me_

* * *

**_Excerpt from the Advice column_**  
_Dear Sakura,_

_I want to meet people. I'm pretty shy and have no friends. Could you be my first friend? Or at least let me meet your other friends?_

_Introduce Me_

_Dear IM,_

_Haha, sorry, but friendship doesn't work that way, unfortunately. You don't just ask people if they can be your friend. You develop a relationship over an extended period of time. You do have a chance to make new friends though. Classes are changing soon, and you might just get your chance to meet someone that you've never met before and become friends!_

_Sakura_

_--_

_**Entry for Saturday, Oct. 17**  
Dear Diary,_

_I don't write in one often, but, seeing as you are my new diary, I have decided to write in you as much as I possibly can. First, I should introduce myself. I go by the name Haruno Sakura. I like reading, writing, and studying. I have shoulder-length pink hair (which is tied up with a red ribbon I recieved as a gift), pale green eyes, and a large forehead (which people make fun of). The only person I don't mind insulting my large forehead is my best friend, Yamanaka Ino, but I know she's teasing (which is why it's also okay for me to call her Ino-pig). She and I have been best friends since we were six - and that's also when I met her other friends, Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru._

_Ino has long blonde hair, which she tends to pull into a ponytail. Wearing it any other way would just serve to annoy her, I guess. She has baby blue eyes, and she's very pretty. A long time ago, she gave me the red ribbon I'm currently wearing as a gift. Many of the boys in our grade have the hots for her. But she only likes one person in the grade - some guy named 'Sasuke' (whoever he is). Anyways, every time she goes off on one of those 'he is so cute!' rantings, all of us try and ignore her as best as possible.  
_

_Akimichi Chouji has reddish-brown hair. He will not restrain himself from murdering you if you call him 'fat'. All of us tend to knock out the person who tries to before they say it anyways - no one deserves to die like that. He's always eating a bag of potato chips. For Christmas, I got him one of those really big bags of chips. I had a hard time finding enough wrapping paper for it. Took him a couple days to finish eating that bag. Oh well.  
_

_Shikamaru is Chouji's best friend. Shikamaru's a total lazy bum, however, and spends most of his time cloud-watching or sleeping. He's ridiculously smart though, with an IQ of over 200. I'm also smart, but he's more logical than I am, which is why he excels in math and I excel in literary arts. If there was one day that I ever went without hearing Shikamaru's "How troublesome," since he moved into Konoha ten years ago (and into the house right next door to me!), it hasn't happened yet. Oddly enough, he somehow landed the editor's position of the school newspaper. His only response? "How troublesome," he says. I don't think it's that bad...  
_

_I also have other friends, like Hyuuga Hinata, Tenten, and Uzumaki Naruto._

_Hinata is from the prestigous Hyuuga clan, the richest clan in Japan. They're known worldwide, having people from the clan in important divisions of the country. They also have a huge buisness. There's two divisions of the clan - the Main house, and the Branch house. The Main house is well-known, and earns much more than the Branch house, who only serves as the Main house's bodyguards and such. Anyways, there's some sort of rivalry between both houses. Hinata is to be the leader of the clan when her father, Hiashi, dies. However, her father sees her as a total failure. She has short navy hair and completely white eyes, which makes everyone believe that she's blind - even though she isn't. She's very soft-spoken, very polite, and very sweet. She has a huge crush on Naruto._

_Tenten has no known last name. She was abandoned on our doorstep, and my parents took her in. I guess if we were to give her a last name, It'd be Haruno, since she's part of our family. In the letter that her parents left, it said her birthday was March 14, her name was Tenten, and that she enjoyed going to the dojo. So, my parents sent her to the dojo, under a man named Umino Iruka. (__I think Maito Gai-sensei should become a dojo teacher. He seems like the kind of guy who should do that instead of teaching.) Anyways, Tenten tends to put her long brown hair into two buns. Ino wanted to force her into wearing braids, but Tenten wouldn't relent. She hates girly stuff like that._

_Uzumaki Naruto... where do I begin with him? Let's see..._

_He was left to my parents by his dead father (his mother died on the day of the birth) as a last wish, seeing as my parents were his dad's best friends. So, he became another member of our family. I think if we'd grown up differently, he probably would have some sort of crush on me. He sure acts like it, anyways. He's got spiky blonde hair, but that's because he doesn't comb his hair in the mornings. He also has these blue eyes. If you stare at them long enough, it's almost like staring at the ocean. He's hyperactive and loves ramen. Most of the time, if he's not home, he's at the local ramen place, Ichiraku. I told him to get a job there, since he spends so much time there, but he hasn't yet. He's completely clueless when it comes to matters of the heart, and just says what he thinks. It's why Hinata loves him so much. He's not afraid to voice his opinion. Naruto was also sent to the dojo, because my parents thought it'd be a way to get all that energy out. So far, it hasn't happened yet. He tends to do unexpected things - like get me you, for instance. I'd spent weeks on end asking for a new diary, and Naruto went out and got me one. It was quite the surprise._

_Lately, I've been writing a thing for the school's website with Tenten. It's been rather hectic. And recently, Shikamaru came up to me with an offer. I've been thinking about it, but I really don't think I'm the right person for the job. Who to choose in my place?_

_And so ends my first entry.  
-Sakura_

_--_

"Oi, Sakura! Get up, will you?" _Who is that? Tenten? _I thought blearily, squeezing my eyes shut.

_'Shannaro! Let me sleep!'_ Inner Sakura yelled. I bopped her on the head, and she retreated into the depths of my mind.

"Honestly, you and Naruto just love sleeping in," Tenten's voice groaned. "You two need to get up now if you want to get to Konohagakure no Sato!" My eyes shot open.

"Finally!" The brown-haired girl cried, flinging her hands in the air in exasperation. "I was beginning to think you'd _never_ get up!" She turned and left my bedroom. I heard her faint voice crying "Naruto, get up!" from the other room. With a sigh, I pulled my closet door open, revealing a mirror. In the reflection was a 15 year old girl with pink hair and green eyes. That's me. I'm Haruno Sakura. I go to Konohagure no Sato, which is one of five high schools in the area. All of them are considered "villages," hence the "Sato" part of the name. There's Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure as well. The uniforms are all the same design, but they're different colors.

I pulled on my white blouse and my red skirt, twirling a little. Then I turned back to the mirror to tie the bow under my collar; adjusting it. Lifting my bag, I stepped out the door and was nearly barreled over by Naruto. I yelped as he ran past, adjusting his tie. He nearly hit me in the head with his bookbag as well. Tenten came walking down the hallway; watching Naruto practically fall down the stairs. He yelped when he reached the landing and crashed into the wall.

I went down the stairs at a slower pace, turning to the left as I reached the bottom to see the kitchen. Then I turned back to Naruto, who was now sitting on the floor rubbing his head.

"Itai..." He wailed. Tenten jumped the last few steps and bopped him on the head.

"You _do_ realize we're going to be late?" She demanded. Naruto shot up and bolted past me into the kitchen, where mom was pouring herself coffee.

"Oh, you two are finally up! Sakura, I'm a bit surprised though.You're normally the first one up." I let out a nervous laugh. The reason I'd been up so late was because I had been busy typing something for the school website, and Tenten and Naruto had been helping me. But if mom found out that we'd stayed up late to do something for school, she'd be furious.

"Uh... well, I couldn't sleep," I lied. Mom studied my face for a moment.

"Oh, okay. Your lunch is over there," she finally said, indicating the pink, orange, and green cloth-wrapped boxes. I poured a bowl of cereal for myself. Naruto had made cup ramen and was wolfing it down. Tenten, on the other hand, had finished eating and was waiting for us to finish.

The front door opened and slammed shut, indicating Mom had left.

"You ate before you woke us up?" Naruto asked between slurps. Tenten nodded, earning a glare from both of us. She laughed nervously.

"Ah, gomen, gomen! But I was hungry and well..." Naruto waved her off, shaking his head.

"Whatever, Tenten-chan." Tenten glared at him.

"You'd do the exact same thing! That's why Sakura's more reliable," Tenten shot back, turning to look at me. I chose not to say anything, watching Tenten and Naruto glare at each other.

"Fine, Tenten-chan." There was a long silence, filled with the sound of Naruto slurping ramen.

"AH! Stop calling me that! We're freshmen!"

"But it's habit! Sakura-chan doesn't mind it, right?" Frankly, I didn't care.

"Nope," I replied, glancing at the clock behind Naruto's head. He turned back to Tenten.

"See?" My eyes widened.

"Whatever..." The time was 7:34. It took 15 minutes to get to school, and school started at 7:45. And that's when it sank in...

"Dammit! We're late!" And thus, we cue the mad rush to the front door...

_--_

"We're changing classes today, you know," Ino commented, leaning against one of the silver lockers in the hallway. She turned to look at me. I was fumbling with my combination lock

"Are you paying attention, Sakura?" I nodded, finally pulling the door open successfully and pulling my books out.

"I hope I get the same class with Sasuke-kun! He's sooo gorgeous! And hot!" I rolled my eyes. Here came The List.

"For one, he has these amazing eyes! They're dark and so totally cool! Also, he's got this amazing dark bluish hair that sticks up in the back! I wonder how he does it... and oh! He's got amazing personality! Even though he just glares at you, you can tell that he's just cool like that. And-"

"Ino," I interrupted calmly, "as much as I want to hear about how much you love this Uchiha Sasuke, I really don't care. At all." At this, Ino turned to me.

"How can you _not_ care?" She demanded, horrified. I rolled my eyes. She_ had_ to pull out the dramatics.

"Ino... how should I put this..._ I don't even know who he is,_" I said evenly. Ino gasped in horror. I let out an exasperated sigh. We probably had this conversation every day. Sheesh. I wasn't even in his class, for Pete's sake!

The bell rang, and I sighed in relief. Freedom.

I bolted to my classroom - class 3-A. Ino was in 3-C, so she wouldn't be bothering me in class. Naruto was in 3-B, and Tenten was also in Ino's class.

3 guesses as to which class the 'guy with the amazing personality' was in.

If you guessed 3-B, good for you!

When I reached my class, the new classroom arrangements were listed on the front board. According to it, I was still in class 3-A - and so was Ino, Naruto, and Tenten. Hinata came over to see the sheet. Her lavendar eyes widened.

"I-I-I'm in the s-same c-class a-as N-N-Naruto-kun!"

"Hinata, don't faint on me," was my reply.

"B-b-b-b-b-but..." I sighed.

"Okay... Hinata, you need to take a deep breath -" But before I could say anything else, she fainted.

"Uh... where's the teacher?" I needed to get her to the nurse's office, and fast. I glanced down at Hinata.

But... unless the teacher came, I couldn't go anywhere.

_Fun._

Note sarcasm.

_--_

The teacher didn't show up, but an assigned seat list was sent to our classroom. Hinata revieved, to find out that her assigned seat was right next to Naruto.

Guess what? She fainted again.

The joy!

Well, not really. Naruto was assigned the task of moving her to her seat, because apparantly, the nurse wasn't in and he sat next to her. Nevertheless, Hyuuga Neji, her cousin, was ready to kill.

He also had to move her because the teacher wasn't here.

When was this guy going to show up? Honestly!

_When you get here Kakashi-sensei, you will be in a world of hurt..._ I vowed as Ino came over. Her eyes were alight with excitement.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun is _here_! In this classroom!" She shrieked into my left ear. I swear all of the people in the classroom would've been staring at us if all of those girls surrounding the back row of desks weren't distracting them already.

The interesting thing was, Sasuke was apparently being surrounded by all of those girls, considering Ino was pointing excitedly at the group of girls, who were screaming "Sasuke-kun!" _really _loudly.

"Amazing," I replied dryly, plugging my left ear in case she decided to scream into it again.

"Isn't it?" Ino cried. Apparantly, the concept of sarcasm had flown right past her head. She just didn't get it - _I didn't care_.

"Uh-huh," I replied. Ino ran off to join the group of screaming girls. I took a seat at one of the few non-surrounded desks in the back of the room. Tenten came over.

"Sakura, I got Naruto to hand 'it' to Neji-san."

'It' happened to be what I'd been staying up late working on. My article on plagerism for the school website.

It's ironic that that _exact_ article was plagerized.

Please don't start laughing.

_--_

When Kakashi-sensei showed up a hour (yes, a hour) late, there were many glares directed at him until he said just six words: "Detention for anyone who is glaring." That made them all stop in a flash. No one apparantly wanted detention on the first day of school.

"Alright everyone, I will read your names in alphabetical order. You will introduce yourselves -" He stopped abruptly, glancing around."Extra students, leave. Now." All the girls that had been in the back row scattered, but not before one of them blew a kiss to the person they kept referring to as "Sasu-kun."

"Okay," Kakashi-sensei began. "Now that all of them are gone, let's begin." And how, exactly, were we supposed to introduce ourselves?

"I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi. You are all to call me Kakashi-sensei. No exceptions." Here, he stopped, glancing around at all of us before pausing at Naruto. He then went back to staring at the rest of the class. "And then you'd say your hobbies, likes, and dislikes. Too bad for all of you, because I really don't feel like telling all of you about them." The rest of the students looked at each other in confusion.

Kakashi-sensei is weird like that. He wears a blue headband - a relic of the former actual Konohagakure no Sato. It's been passed down to him by his ancestors - and the only reason I know that is because my parents are best friends with him. It's tilted sideways, covering his left eye, because he's blind in that eye. Also, he wears a face mask because he likes looking ridiculously mysterious.

If you ask me, I think he's seen too many ninja movies.

"First. Aburame Shino." A dark-haired boy wearing sunglasses and an overcoat (isn't that against dress code?) stood up.

"Aburame Shino." He said.

There was a long silence.

Then he sat down.

"...Uh, next?" Kakashi-sensei asked, baffled (although you really couldn't tell, considering how his face was covered with a mask).

"Akiraku Ami," a purple-haired girl said, standing up.

And so it went.

When he reached me, I stood.

"Haruno Sakura," I introduced myself. "I like writing. Writing's also my hobby." I paused, glancing at the whole class. "And I hate liars."

I'd never forgive anyone who lied to me.

Never.

_--_

Letting you know about every single person would be really boring, so I've just decided I should skim through the important ones.

Yamanaka Ino - Likes? Flower arranging and 'Sasuke-kun.' Hates? Idiots and people who also like 'Sasuke-kun' who are not part of the official fanclub. Hobbies? Flower arranging.

Nara Shikamaru - Likes? "Too troublesome to tell you." Hates? "Troublesome." Hobbies? "How troublesome... cloud watching."

Uzumaki Naruto - Likes? Ramen. Hates? "That three-minute wait for ramen!" Hobbies? Ramen tasting.

Hyuuga Neji - Likes? Meditating. Hates? "Not much." Hobbies? "I enjoy sparring." And, even though he didn't admit it, he spends his time protecting Hinata.

Rock Lee - Likes? "The power of YOUTH!" and me. Hates? "Anyone who shames the power of YOUTH!" Hobbies? Fighting Neji, and (although he didn't say it) saying "youth" way too much.

Tenten - Likes? Pointy objects. Hates? Rude people. Hobbies? Knife throwing, if you can believe it.

Sabaku no Temari - Likes? Fan dancing. Hates? Her brother. Hobbies? Fan dancing.

Sabaku no Kankuro - Likes? Making puppets. Hates? His sister. Hobbies? Puppet shows.

Hyuuga Hinata - Likes? Flowers (and even if she doesn't admit it, Naruto).

Inuzuka Kiba - Likes? Dogs. Hates? Idiots. Hobbies? "Uh... I don't have many hobbies, unless hanging out with Akamaru is one!"

But since I mentioned most of these people in my diary entry, I'll skip ahead to the most important one.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Doesn't like anything, hates his fangirls (who didn't seem to care when he said that) and he doesn't seem to have hobbies either. He was seated right next to me.

Oh boy. What a great way to start the new term.

_--_

"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura," I introduced. "And I know you're Uchiha Sasuke."

"..." Was his reply.

_Stupid Kakashi-sensei, what am I supposed to get out of this 10-minute "Get to Know Your Partner" time? _

"I like writing - I even wrote an article for the school website."

"Hn." He glared at me with his dark eyes. I stared back. "Your necklace is stupid-looking."

_Of all the things to bring up..._

"This is a locket," I said, fingering it. "Specially made. It was my 10th birthday present from my secret best friend." It was an oval shape, with a Sakura tree on it - my namesake.

"Hn."

"Do you say anything besides that?" Yeah, this guy _sure_ had amazing personality...

"Hn."

"I guess not, huh?"

"Hn." Wow. This had to be the most amazing conversation ever.

"So, uh, Uchiha-san, what do you do in your spare time?" I asked, as politely as possible.

"Ignore idiots." Wow! A sentence! "Like you." Was I offended by his statement?

Not really.

Considering that this guy had issues and didn't talk. Seriously.

I think he's one of those 'double personality' people. Because apparently, he and Naruto have fantastic spats. And he reportedly acts different around friends.

I guess that's just one of the mysteries of the world.

"Nah," I replied, trying to seem casual. "Naruto's more of an idiot." And he was. Hinata had fainted again and he hadn't even noticed yet.

"Hn." And here we are, back to one-syllable answers! Whoo-hoo! Except he had this weird look on his face - vaguely between a smirk and that indifferent expression he'd been wearing.

"Ah... okay then..." I said awkwardly.

I wondered how he could make two expressions at once.

Kinda strange, if you ask me.

* * *

Ahahaha... that's the end to my very lame chapter.

I'll try to get the other chapter out ASAP!


	2. Bullied

Hey everyone! I'm not dead!

...Or, at least, I don't think I am. I've been really uninspired lately (especially because I haven't seen Naruto in years), but I really wanted to write... so I finally got around to writing this chapter. Sorry to those of you who waited so long...

There is a language warning for this one. If you don't like it, then just pretend it's not there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the fillers wouldn't exist and Kakashi Gaiden would have been animated.

_Plagerized_

_Chapter 2: Bullied_

* * *

_**Excerpt from the advice column:**  
_

_Dear Sakura,_

_Everyone hates me, and I don't know why. I wish they would stop making fun of me and beating me up. My clothes are a mess and I'm afraid to go to school anymore. What can I do?  
_

_Bullied_

_Dear Bullied,_

_Confront them. Don't let them know it bothers you. Act nice and try to make friends with people, and those friends may manage to help you get others to stop making fun of you.  
_

_You'll have more influence as a group than you will as a solitary person._

_And if that doesn't work, get the principal or the counselor to help you get them to stop. Crime and punishment is good too._

_Sakura _

* * *

I swear Uchiha's the most idiotic partner ever. And to imagine - I'll be next to him until the semester ends!

Just shoot me now.

"So... what do you like doing in your spare time.. besides ignoring idiots?" I asked. Hey, at least I was trying.. unlike a certain emo-type boy. I swear he's emo.

"Getting a life." If that was an insult, it didn't make much sense...

Wait. _Was_ that an insult? You never could tell with the emotionless types...

"Yes, I was insulting you." I flinched. It was like he was reading my mind. Scary...

"Hn. Stupid." _Why you little... _Inner Sakura was ready to kill him. It's pretty obvious she has no patience whatsoever. I can't believe she's actually a part of me. But whatever.

"...Nevermind then..." I decided that waiting out the rest of the ten minutes in awkward silence would be better than talking to "chicken-head." Yes, that's right, "chicken-head." Don't ask me, it was Inner Sakura's bright idea.

Then again, she's part of me...

The silence surrounding our table ticked by slowly. Sooooooooooo slowly.

Tick... tick... tick...

Uchiha seemed perfectly fine with it though. He was just sitting there, his hands folded under his chin. The fangirls showed up to admire how amazingly emo he was.

Cue head slamming into desk and groan of frustration.

"Sasuke-kun! You're so cool!"

"I love you, Sasuke-kun!"

I decided I hated my new seat in homeroom.

Not many other girls would have said the same, I bet.

"Time's up!" Everyone instantly fell silent to look at Kakashi-sensei. He had a scary look on his face. Er, well, as scary as it could get with a mask on.

Obviously, he was planning on something to torture us all with.

"Since all of you have gotten to know your table partners better, you all have permission from them." We all stared at him. What?

"Uh, sensei, what permission is this?" Lee asked.

"To call them by their first name of course! Anyone who doesn't comply gets detention!" If he was joking, I couldn't tell. He had that freaking mask on his face. I glared at him.

I had to call Uchiha - wait, no, Sasuke - by his first name now?

What the hell.

We weren't even friends.

No way in hell was I going to do that. EVER.

* * *

_**Excerpt from Sakura's diary, October 18**_

_The news that my article had been plagiarized came pretty suddenly, during break. A girl had come in with her laptop and interrupted the whole class to show us the website._

_Needless to say, I was pretty irritated. There were two copies of my article on the website!_

_One by me, and one by Uchiha.  
_

_And who did they get mad at?_

_Me (obviously, because it's everyone's personal goal to make my life worse - okay, I'm just exaggerating).  
_

_Isn't that wonderful?_

_But the thing is.. how did Uchiha copy my article? I had never made any contact with him before today._

_I didn't even know him before today..._

* * *

The girl who entered was Akiraku Ami. You know, the girl with the purple hair and the really haughty face and all that.

Yeah.

It seemed she had a posse of some sort, because there was always two girls flanking her. There was Irakara Fuki and Mamori Kasumi. Irakara had this tomboy-ish aura surrounding her. She definitely looked like a tough girl.

Mamori, on the other hand, had an afro and looked completely ridiculous. I didn't quite understand why she didn't change her hairstyle. It made her look like she was from the disco era.

All three of them hated me. See, we had this little history back in kindergarten...

And, oh yeah...

...All three of them were suck-ups.

To the teachers, to people they liked (Uchi - Sasuke), and to anyone who could get them in trouble, which obviously didn't include me, because they treated me like dirt, no matter what time of day it was.

I blame kindergarten. They never forgave me for that...

"Hey! Forehead girl! You might want to see this!" This was Ami talking. I moaned softly. I was pretty sure that, whatever it was, I wouldn't want to see it. And she used the preschool nickname. That meant that it had to be something really bad that she could carry out vengeance for.

She just put her laptop right in front of me. I didn't think that I'd really want to see this, knowing our _amazing_ history together. She hit the power button, and the computer booted up. Sasuke, sitting next to me, lifted his head and raised his eyes to glance at the computer. Ami smirked, knowing that both of us were watching. She opened her internet browser and began typing in the school address. It loaded in about 3 seconds.

"What?" I asked. "Is there something I need to see?" Ami was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something else.

"You don't see it? Fine!" She clicked on my article, which loaded. Then she adjusted the window so it took up half of the page. She then opened another window, adjusted the window, loaded the website (which didn't take as long as the first time), and clicked on another article... which had the same title... _Oh._

You're probably thinking, "what the heck?", right?

It gets even better. The articles had the same content, the same layout; the same exact words. And it was by my brand spanking new partner, Uchi- no, Chicken-head. Or Sasuke. Whichever sounds better to you.

"How could you do that, Forehead-girl? Huh? How could you copy Sasuke-kun's hard work like that?" She demanded, her face getting closer and closer with each word.

_What?_ "That was _my_ hard work! I spent hours on it!" I even gave up my cram school time. And convinced Tenten to help me with it.

"Liar! You copied Sasuke-kun's work! You'll pay!" She shouted. The other two (and the majority of "Chicken-head's" fan girls who had popped up) nodded.

She slapped me in the face. My hand darted towards the undoubtedly red mark that had appeared. Needless to say, I was fairly surprised. That was uncalled for.

"Come on girls, let's go." Ami and the others walked off, taking her laptop with them.

Leaving me. And Sasuke, staring at me with that expressionless face of his.

I could feel my face burning. From anger.

I was really ticked off.

* * *

The first attack was initiated at lunch. Basically, all it involved was a bunch of food being hurled at me from Sasuke's fangirls.

And then Ami calling me a slut.

Which didn't make much sense, but whatever. What ticked me off was the food that had been thrown at me. The stains would probably _never_ come out.

Boy, wasn't that just the most exciting thing ever to happen to me on the face of the planet.

Inner Sakura had gotten really mad. Ami had better be grateful that I managed to control her, or else Inner Sakura would have ripped her head off. Literally.

And then some.

Instead of thanking me (not that anyone_ knows _about Inner Sakura), she slapped me. Again. And once again, it was completely unnecessary.

So now, I was covered from head to foot in food, standing in front of Tsunade, the principal, a family friend, and my former babysitter/tutor.

She looked royally pissed off.

"What's this I hear about you plagiarizing someone else's article? Sakura, I thought you were better than this! I just might have to remove you from the newspaper as punishment! You _do_ know that plagiarism is basically an invitation for me to have you expelled, right? Do you _want_ that?" My eyes widened briefly at the idea of being removed from the paper. Shikamaru would be really annoyed if I was kicked off. I had to be there for my friend.

"I didn't do it! Sasuke did!" I snapped, very irritated. I'd have to wear my other uniform until this one was cleaned.

Lord, what was with Sasuke's fan club? Honestly!

"Look, Sakura, you need to understand that plagiarism is bad." This would be the perfect time for the classic sarcastic reply of _"No, really?"_, but I didn't want to get in any more trouble.

"And you can't punish Sasuke for it?" I demanded, crossing my arms. Oh, bad idea, because now my sleeves were smearing whatever yellow stuff was on it (vanilla pudding, I think) to the spaghetti on the front of my shirt.

"You two are on first-name basis?" She asked in reply.

"It's Kakashi-sensei's order, lest I want detention," I replied. Does it really seem like I want to call him by his first name? I bet she thinks that I'm part of his fan club now... "You never answered _my_ first question."

"Uchiha Sasuke is an important figure in the school! I can't do that - not unless he confesses to me." I forgot to mention - chicken-head happens to be part of the biggest and richest family in all of Konoha.

"Oh, and I can be expelled at will, right?" I retorted. Tsunade gave me a look and shook her head, waving her hand to dismiss me. I turned and exited the office, still covered in cafeteria food.

This would take _years_ to wash out.

* * *

You're all going to think 'Lucky Sakura!' when you find out that yes, this would begin to happen to me up until Wednesday (that's a total of three days, folks!), with varying levels of food amounts, depending on what was served for lunch.

The worst day was Tuesday, when Mystery Meat had been served.

The reason it stopped was because of Tsunade-sensei, who hadstepped in and offered to spend personal 'quality time' with anyone who dared to throw food at anyone for the next month single every day after school. (I had gone to her office once again and complained to her after the Mystery Meat incident.)

Ami claimed that they they weren't going to stop until I got down on my knees and apologized to "the almighty Sasuke-kun for copying his amazing, stupendous, unattainable level of journalism" (quote Ami).

Cue eyeroll.

Of course, Inner Sakura would not agree to that (_"GO to HELL, you fucking bitch!"_), and so I'd just ignored Ami when she told me that.

Two kids had earned 'quality time' already and had come back looking as if they'd been through hell and back.

Needless to say, everyone else stopped.

And what of Chicken-head, you ask?

He kept _staring_ at me once in awhile, as if to asses the damage he incurred on me.

Somehow, it seemed like he was trying to get a reaction out of me, if you can believe that.

He got his reaction, all right.

"Why do you keep _staring_ at me?" I asked him irritably during break.

"Hn," was the reply.

"That made a lot of sense," I retorted sarcastically. "It's your fault I'm in this position."

"Oh really?" He asked. I edged slowly away, still looking straight ahead.

"Yeah, it is your fault."

"You're annoying," was all he said.

_'Hey!'_ Was Inner Sakura's genius reply to that.

"Excuse me?" I asked innocently, tilting my head to the side.

"I said, you're annoying." Inner Sakura was _pissed._ I shoved her into a box and locked it. The last thing I needed was to explode into a rage.

"You..." I trailed off, turning around and leaving the classroom as calmly as possible instead of giving into Inner Sakura's wishes of _'Slam his head into the floor! SHANNARO!'_

* * *

I returned to the classroom eventually, when break ended. This day (which happens to be Wednesday, in case you're lost) was looking bad already. Add Gai-sensei (our relations teacher) to the mix, and it gets worse.

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!" Cue tears, sunset backdrop, and a wave crashing into the shore.

"Gai-sensei!" Cue hand smacking own face.

"Lee!" Both man and student embraced each other, sobbing. Cue deep sighs from the majority of the class.

There was a long silence following their 'heart-wrenching' reunion.

An eraser smacked me in the forehead in the middle of the silence. I leaned over and picked it up, noting how it was labeled "Official Sasuke-kun/Anti-Haruno Sakura Fanclub"in bright pink ink.

Wonderful. I have an anti-me fan club.

Wait. Is that even possible?

When Gai-sensei and Lee finally broke apart, the former of the two made an announcement:

"Next week, you must bring your most sentimentally valued item, as homework. We will be discussing the youthfulness of it, as it is most likely from your childhood and will probably be very exciting!" I swear his teeth went _'ping'_ at the end of that sentence.

The end of class came rather slowly. Too slowly. I was ready to strangle one (1) Gai-sensei and one (1) Rock Lee, for their amazing public displays of affection.

That, and I was sitting next to Sasuke, Mr. I-Can-Plagiarize-Things-Without-Even-Thinking. I know it's a long title, but it needs to be descriptive, or it won't work.

To think I'll have to suffer through this every day I spend at school...

I'm dreading it already.

* * *

Since they couldn't throw food at me, they decided to insult and torture me.

The silent treatment wasn't very effective, but I didn't care - as long as everyone left me alone.

As soon as they figured that out, they began verbally abusing me.

The torture started off small. I was tripped occasionally and shoved 'accidentally' a few times at first.

And then there was the beating I received from the boy faction of Sasuke's fan club, but that only happened once and Hinata had gotten Kurenai-sensei before it got too brutal.

I find it creepy that he _has_ a boy faction of a fan club. I wonder if he knows...

Also, Ino wasn't talking to me anymore. She'd come to me in shocked tears, obviously having heard the news from her fellow "I Heart Sasuke-kun" fan club members.

"Why, Sakura? Why? How could you? I never thought _you_, of all people, would do such a -" She had whispered desperately, searching for answers. I chose not to answer, but inwardly, I was hurt. Ino, one of my best friends, didn't trust me. Maybe if I ignored them all, they'd all go away. Ami had approached at that point, her purple hair whipping me in the face.

"Come on, Ino. Leave that _bitch_" (she spat that out with very obvious disdain) "alone." She dragged Ino off to tell her all the horrible things I'd done to their poor "Sasuke-kun" - which, besides plagiarism, apparently included sitting next to him, beating up one of his fan club members (which didn't happen), knocking Sasuke over (which didn't happen), and insulting Sasuke (which didn't happen - at least, not out loud).

So after Ino had been poisoned by Ami, she wouldn't speak to me.

And when she did, it was something like this:

"You fucking bitch! You should go to hell and burn there for what you did!" And then she'd let out a bunch of very colorful words before launching into her new List: The top ten Reasons I Hate Haruno Sakura.

It's such a creative name. I told her so.

She slapped me in the face for that comment. It hurt.

But I can't cry. I can't.

I promised someone very important to me.

_Never_ cry in front of anyone else.

* * *

"Hey Sakura, you're here," a bored voice said as I walked into the Journalism Club's room. It was Shikamaru, glancing up from his shougi game with Asuma-sensei, the teacher in charge of the Journalism Club. I studied the game in front of them for a second, noting that Asuma was in check, before turning around to do my job, which would be editing the newspaper. Hinata was supposed to be helping me, but she'd caught a fever on Thursday and therefore could not come.

Shikamaru may be 'Editor-in-chief,' but I'm the actual Editor - since our resident cloud watcher would rather play shougi. I scowled at him.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?" I demanded, crossing my arms. I winced as soon as I did, because they're somewhat bruised. Hopefully, Shikamaru didn't notice. Shikamaru shrugged, glancing lazily at me. He turned back to the game and moved another piece. I groaned in frustration.

"Shikamaru!" I snapped, approaching. "Are you slacking off_ again_?" He moved another piece.

"I guess," he replied. I scowled.

"Okay, you really need to get moving, Shikamaru! I can't do this all myself, you know!" In response, he replied with a "How troublesome," and stood up as if it was a chore. "I win." Asuma-sensei looked startled, before scanning the board.

"He did win! Wow!" He shook his head, laughing. He had a plastic straw in his mouth from the cafeteria - to substitute for his cigarette, I guess, since he can't smoke indoors.

Well, it's more of a "not allowed to" than it is a "can't."

Tsunade had promised at least twenty years of pain and his head stuffed into a plastic bag for a year if he did.

After Shikamaru finally got up, he just stood right next to me and complained, getting absolutely no work done. I sighed.

"Shikamaru, if this is so troublesome, why did you take the job in the first place?" He shrugged.

"It didn't seem so troublesome before," he grumbled. I shook my head in disappointment. I didn't even know why I bothered.

"So why did you want to see me?" I asked after a pause. He stopped mid-yawn and turned to stare at me. A rare grin graced his face.

"I was wondering whether or not you wanted the advice column job," he replied, "since you don't really have an official job, and the current writer is moving next week." I frowned.

"It's bad enough I get _accused _of having the job - all because I have the same name as the 'writer.' I'm not going to let the rumors become reality, okay? I've had enough with the whole 'I can't believe you told me to do this - it didn't work' or the 'I could give better advice than you' thing. Give it to someone else, will you?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "No way. You're incredible at this stuff. You should do it."

"It was one time," I protested, "and I did horribly." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right. You were fantastic the last time you gave advice."

"I'm _not _doing it," I grumbled.

Shikamaru groaned. "How troublesome."

"You can't win me over with the defeated act, Shikamaru."

"You know, I hate you for being my childhood friend sometimes," He muttered.

"Sorry that I've been living next door to you for 10 years then."

"You're definitely not sorry."

"Pfft. Obviously. How am I supposed to determine where I live, anyways?"

"Troublesome."

"I'm still not doing it." Shikamaru crossed his arms and gave me a hard look.

"Okay, then. You find someone. I'm not looking. It's too annoying." He walked off.

"...Lazy idiot," was my reply.

"You know you love me," he replied with a grin. I started to laugh.

"Right... and Ino-pig can fly." The grin faded to a frown.

"I heard about that."

"It's fine," I said automatically. "It didn't bother me that much."

"Liar," he told me. "I've known you long enough. Every time you tell me 'it's fine,' it's _not_ fine." I looked away. _Damn_ him and his ability to read people.

"Believe what you want to, Shikamaru, but it doesn't bother me at all."

"Yeah, ri-" Thankfully, Shikamaru was interrupted by the entrance of a very excited Naruto. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and scowled.

"What do you want, Naruto?" He demanded, arms crossed.

"No-thing," Naruto replied innocently, a huge grin on his face. I sighed and wondered for probably the millionth time how I managed to live under the same roof as this _idiot_. My parents were too nice sometimes.

Okay, maybe all the time.

"You want something, don't you Naruto?" Shikamaru demanded, eyes narrowed. "You're acting _way_ too suspicious."

"Aw, you wound me!" Naruto cried in mock-horror, holding his hand to his chest.

"Maybe you should go to the nurse's office, then," I suggested dryly.

"Are you looking for someone?" Asuma-sensei asked, coming up behind Shikamaru. He placed his hands on Shikamaru's shoulders, giving an all-knowing smile.

"Yup!"

"Who?"

"...Sasuke-teme..." Shikamaru and I exchanged glances. Since when did Uchiha work at the journalism club?

"Why the he-" I started to say.

"I doubt he's here," Shikamaru interrupted. "He's never been here. Maybe you're looking for Neji and you were just confused?" Unlike the 'almighty' Uchiha, Neji was in the club room regularly because of Hinata.

"Oh, yeah... haha, right," Naruto replied, rubbing the back of his head. "I was just confused." He laughed again, as if that would cover up his blatant lie. I rolled my eyes. Naruto was such a bad liar.

He had another reason for being there.

* * *

**_Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 22_**

_I've said it before, haven't I? I hate liars!_

_And the funniest part is that everyone thinks __I'm__ lying about this plagiarism thing. I don't lie about things like that! __The only thing I've ever lied about are my feelings - and only when I'm hurt or sad. I don't want to bother anyone._

_Everyone lies to me about their secrets. And somehow, I've always forgiven them._

_It doesn't mean I'll forgive Sana for lying to me all those years ago._

_"Who's Sana?", you ask?_

_It's my old friend's nickname. What's funny is that I can't remember his actual name. __If I meet him again, I'll have to apologize for that. __I wonder if I've already met him and haven't realized it yet?_

_Nah, it's not possible._

_At least, I don't think it is..._

* * *

4,000 plus words! Yay!

This would have been longer, but I decided that the diary entry would be a good natural break for the next chapter.

See you all next time!


	3. Friend

Sorry it took this long - I actually reached my 4,000 word goal for this chapter last week, but it didn't make sense to simply let it stop when Sakura reached Hinata's house, so I kept writing. I'm currently inspired for this story, so don't worry, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I can't say the same for my other two stories in progress though.

I realized the title was misspelled. Sigh... now I'll have to fix that, but it shouldn't be too hard. This chapter has a language warning as well. Actually, this is rated T, so you really don't need the warning, but just to let you know. But enough of my rambling!

Disclaimer: The only way the phase "I own _Naruto_" ever apply to me is if there was a "do not" in between "I" and "own." _Naruto_ is the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

_Plagiarized_

_Chapter 3: F(r)iend_

* * *

_**Excerpt from the advice column  
**Dear Sakura,_

_I tend to be two sided when it comes to friend relationships. I lie to and back-stab my good friends to get what I want - popularity. But now that I've got it, I hate it. None of my 'friends' are real friends and my true friends hate me and won't speak to me. I want my old friends back. What do I do?_

_F(r)iend_

_Dear F(r)iend,_

_Uh... nice nickname, first of all. Secondly, you really need to try and talk to your friends. Keep persisting at it. Let them know you're being honest. Dress the way you used to before you attained your 'popularity.' Begin sticking up for your former friends. If you're lucky, you'll be able to gain your friendship back in no time._

_Sakura_

* * *

**_Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 24:_**

_Naruto, being the_ nice guy_ (note sarcasm) that he is, invited his friends over._

_I was glad it was a Saturday, because it meant meant no torture, no fan girls, no fan boys, no school, and best of all, no Uchiha._

_Until I found out about this afternoon._

_And, ironically enough, Uchiha's one of them (since when were they friends?)._

_I am sick and tired of seeing Uchiha everyday - I can't escape him at all!_

_I think I'm going to leave before Naruto's friends get here._

_Hm... I wonder where I could go?_

* * *

I frowned, scanning my closet.

Both of my dirty uniforms had come back from the wash, good as new. The other one that had come back was the one I had borrowed from Tenten.

One of my uniforms was missing. And half of my wardrobe.

But that's Naruto's fault.

Naruto had hijacked my closet last night (read: broke into my bedroom at midnight, waking me up), and took a ton of clothes.

What he wanted them for, I had no idea. I didn't ask him about it, either.

I'd only given him a 'Get-out-of-my-room-or-you-will-wish-you-had-never-been-born' glare before falling asleep again.

He'd taken my skirts and a bunch of my t-shirts and tank tops, it seemed. Needless to say, I really didn't have a lot of clothing options that I could choose from.

I pulled out a white t-shirt and a red sweater to go over it, and added a pair of jeans. After I had finished changing, I studied my reflection in the mirror. It didn't look too bad. Red went surprisingly well with my long pink hair. I snatched up the red ribbon on my desk and put it on as a hair band, and then put on the silver chain that was my locket. I looked in the mirror again.

Hm. Not bad.

I shut the closet door and snatched up Tenten's uniform from my bed, glancing briefly at the pictures on my bedside table, debating whether or not I should remove the "Friends Forever" picture of Ino and me. We weren't exactly what you'd call "friends" anymore, not after the way she'd been treating me all week, but this picture held memories. It was from our first mall trip together, and we'd shoved ourselves into the photo booth and got our pictures taken. Later, we'd blown up the pictures and framed them, one for her and one for me. I glanced at the picture again. Throwing it away would be like throwing away our friendship. I wasn't ready to do that yet.

With a sigh and a shake of my head, I left my room, pulling the door shut and displaying the 'Do Not Disturb - This Means You, Naruto' sign that I had hung up this morning.

The house was unusually quiet for a Saturday, since Naruto wasn't home - he and his friends were going to the movies before coming to our house, and he'd left ten minutes ago to meet them at the mall.

I walked into Tenten's room and wondered where she was, before remembering that Tenten had left at nine for her part-time job at the general store. I left the uniform on her bed and went to the kitchen, finding two notes there.

The first one read:

_Sakura -_

_I'm on a business trip - will be gone for two weeks. Lunch and dinner are in the fridge. If you go out, please leave a note for your father and let him know where you are going._

_Love, Mom_

Oh yeah. Mom had a business trip overseas in London or something like that. I could never remember where her trips were. This meant that she would be gone for a couple of weeks. I picked up the next note.

_Dear Sakura:_

_I am going out with Naruto and his friends - will be back around 4._

_-Your dad_

So Dad had gone with Naruto. I felt kind of bad - Dad tended to take over everything. When he had gone with Ino, Hinata and I on a movie trip, he'd forced us to go to some G-rated movie that had way too much comedy and made Ino want to chuck something at the screen.

Poor Naruto and friends.

Wait, scratch that.

Poor Naruto and friends - minus Uchiha.

I have no sympathy for that guy right now.

* * *

I spent about an hour in front of the TV before deciding that a walk around town would be better.

I scribbled a quick note and left it on the kitchen table, before grabbing my jacket and slipping on my shoes.

I was off to Hinata's. I hoped she was okay, since she'd come down with a fever. Hopefully she was better now. I grabbed my messenger bag and slung it over my shoulder. I'd promised Hinata that if she'd ever gotten sick, I'd either a) give all of her homework to Neji to take home or b) take it there myself. I didn't find Neji Friday, so I opted to take it myself.

I stepped out the door. A breeze brushed past me as I locked the door behind me and stepped onto the sidewalk. I shivered. Even with the jacket, it was still pretty cold, even for 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature felt a lot colder than that.

I'd have to get Hinata a get-well gift, too. A trip to the flower shop was in order. Wait. Ino's family runs the flower shop. I sighed. Now I'd either have to show up without a flower (which Hinata loves), get something else, or face the undeniable fury that I'd receive from simply walking into the flower shop.

I decided to get the flowers anyways. Ino may hate me, but she probably wouldn't do anything too serious while I was there. And hopefully, nothing bad would happen.

At least, I hoped so.

I wondered what kind of flowers I should get Hinata on the way there. Roses? Daisies?

Daffodils?

* * *

**_Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 24 (second entry):_**

_Okay, I admit it. I was wrong. I'd honestly believed nothing wrong would happen at the flower store.  
_

_And I was right about that part._

_Unfortunately, Ami showed up. With her posse._

_I couldn't control Inner Sakura this time around._

_You can probably guess what happened._

* * *

"Daffodils. I'm going to get daffodils," I told myself, as I walked closer and closer to the Yamanaka's. I'd been here so many times before, I could navigate here with my eyes closed.

Not that I was navigating with my eyes closed or anything.

The last time I had done that, I'd nearly crashed into several people and walked into a pole.

But that's beside the point.

I stopped right outside the store. Ceramic flowerpots were stacked up outside of the store. I could see metal buckets inside, filled with water and flowers, freshly cut for the day.

I pulled open the door and entered. There was a tinkling sound as the door shut behind me. I walked between the metal buckets, looking for daffodils.

I found them next to the roses.

Oh, I remember the last time I received a rose. I'll have to write about that, in case I ever forget about it (not like I would, but still!).

I sorted through the daffodils before finding a very nice cream and yellow one and headed to the front desk to pay. Except... there was one problem.

There was no one at the front desk.

I even rang the bell a couple of times to confirm it.

_O-kay then..._ was the thought that ran through my head. _Better go find someone..._

The perk to being Ino's (former) best friend was that I knew how to get into her house. So, after putting the daffodil carefully on the desk, I exited the store and headed down the alleyway that was situated right next to the door.

I went up the fire escape...

Knocked on the door...

Once... twice... three times... four times even...

No response.

I sighed. Maybe I could just leave the money and walk out with the flower or something. I decided that would be easy enough; I knew how much a daffodil was, having bought them before. I pulled out 200 yen and left it on the counter, walking out with the flower.

It was just my luck that I walked out and right into Ino.

"Sorry," I automatically said, sidestepping her. She grabbed my messenger bag, preventing me from getting away from her.

"Are you _stealing_ from the store?" She demanded, eyes narrowed. I stood there, flower in hand.

"No," I replied, giving her a once-over, noting that she had shopping bags. She'd been at the mall. Without me.

_Ino and I had always gone on mall trips together,_ I thought instantly, frowning.

Wait. Why did this bother me? We weren't friends anymore. She'd thrown me away in favor of her love interest that she had almost no chance with - Uchiha Sasuke. She'd insulted me in fury. She'd let Ami do everything to me, from insults to slapping me.

She'd proved that she couldn't stand me anymore. Then why...?

"No?" Ino repeated, glaring at me. "Knowing you, I bet you did."

_Way to jump to conclusions,_ I thought dryly. _Just because I freaking "plagiarized" an article does not mean I'm going to suddenly completely reverse my moral code and start stealing, of all things._

I didn't say anything out loud, though. Ino continued to glare at me, daring me to make a move.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue... bitch?" I picked up on the new voice right away. Ami. Giggles had followed that statement. Ami's friends.

_'I'm going to kill you!' _Was Inner Sakura's instant reply. _Way to stay calm,_ I thought irritably, trying to lock her away.

"Plagiarism isn't good enough for you anymore, huh? You have to pick up on stealing as well? Ino's family works _so_hard to plant and grow these flowers. And you have to be a jerk and just steal one. Do you, like, know how much these flowers are?" Unlike Ino, she was smirking at me.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I'd already paid for the flower... even if they didn't know it yet.

Apparently, rolling my eyes was a bad move, because Ami's smirk widened.

"So, you don't care about Ino's family? You don't care if they suffer because you steal a flower? You don't care if they starve and have to live on the streets and die? Because the attitude you're displaying right now is just that. Uncaring."

"Ooh, how mean!" Fuki cried out, right on cue. Ino was giving me a hurt look.

"How can you do that? You... you..."

"Slut," Kasumi supplied. _'I'm going to shave that afro off...'_ Inner Sakura promised.

"You're horrible. How can you have friends?" Ami asked rhetorically, shaking her head at me. "Shame on you, Forehead Girl."

Fuki grabbed me by the shirt and shoved me back into the store. Ino and the others followed. Ami was talking to Ino, distracting her. Ino was shaking her head.

"I never liked her," Ino was saying, glancing at me, as if to gauge my reaction. _What?_ Suddenly my mind was on overdrive. _What the hell, Ino? Do you really like Uchiha that much? Enough to hate your 'best friend?' What's wrong with you?_ I couldn't stop the thoughts, couldn't fight against the emotions trying to overwhelm my body. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying, _trying_ not to break the promise that I had kept for so many years. I was not going to give in after so many years.

Her words were on repeat. _"I never liked her."_ It was like being stabbed over and over again.

_Liar. Liar. Liar._

Had she really lied to me all those years?

_I won't forgive her!_

My mind was racing. Fast, faster, fastest. I wasn't paying attention, the room was spinning, everything was wrong, wrong, wrong!

Fuki grabbed me by the shirt again and slammed me against a wall. The spinning stopped as my head slammed against the wall. I winced. Fuki was _strong._ I hit the wall hard enough to jolt the picture frames.

"I bet you _paid_ all of your current friends to stay friends with you," Ami said, approaching me and smirking. "For taking advantage of your 'friends' (air quotes), I guess you'll just have to be punished... Fuki? Kasumi?"

_'Paid them? She's not you, you - !'_ Inner Sakura cut herself off, but I could hear her muttering all sorts of names I had never even heard of. My focus was slipping again.

One of them (I didn't see which) punched me. I gasped and coughed painfully. The other one kicked me. I bit back a cry of pain. I could see Ino, not even looking at me.

_"I never liked her."_

_I won't forgive her!_

Inner Sakura was getting harder to suppress. _'Shannaro! You are so fucking **screwed** when I get through with you!!'_ I struggled to prevent her from coming out. If she did, then I'd have problems. It was hard though - she had a whole week of anger riding behind her - and I was trying to suppress an onslaught of my own emotions. They grabbed me and pinned my arms. I almost screamed in frustration.

Ami gave the order for the other two to let me go. They shoved me into the water buckets and spilled flowers all over. Ino just stood there, still shaking her head, the hurt look still there.

Then she turned and walked away.

_I won't forgive her!_

Ami smirked and ordered the two of them to approach me again.

_'THAT'S IT!!'_ Inner Sakura roared. _'I'm dealing with this, whether you like it or not! Ino, Ami, you two are so FUCKING DEAD!!'_

By that time, I'd given in to Inner Sakura's fury. I lost my handle over her, feeling myself slip into unconsciousness.

I don't remember what happened. When I'd regained control, Ami and her friends were gone, all of the buckets were overturned, and flowers were strewn everywhere. Ino had disappeared as well.

I left, not knowing if I could prevent Inner Sakura from coming back if they returned. I took my bag and the daffodil (which miraculously stayed alive) with me.

_I won't forgive her... liar..._

_How could you do this to me?_

* * *

**_Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 24:_**

_Okay, I've calmed down a little, enough to tell you about the rose._

_(Laughs) The last time I received a rose... _

_It was from my childhood friend Sana. Sana had been so cute with his big, innocent, crimson eyes. It had been a get-well present when I was sick. I'd smiled at him before he handed it to me._

_I'd poked my finger on a thorn and started to cry from the pain, and he'd paled considerably when he saw that I was crying._

_He started to panic a little, and then he started to scan the room for a band-aid._

_He didn't find any._

_So, he did what he assumed would be the next best thing (being five at the time). He grabbed my finger, stuck it in his mouth, and started to suck on it._

_And this is the reason I'm laughing. It was just too funny._

_After that, he'd made me promise him not to cry in front of anyone, beca__use it made people feel sad. I agreed to his promise and he'd promised me something too._

_And then he moved the next week and broke his promise._

_True to my word, I did not cry in front of anyone when Sana moved away._

_I shut myself in my bedroom for an hour instead._

_A __month later, Shikamaru's family moved in._

_And once again, I shut myself in my bedroom, refusing to accept that Sana was probably gone forever._

_That's where Shikamaru found me staring out my open window when he'd climbed the tree in between our houses to cloud watch._

_That's how Shikamaru and I first met - but we didn't become actual friends until much later._

_Pretty interesting, huh?_

_Probably not..._

* * *

I arrived at Hinata's house and inhaled sharply. I'd forgotten how... _big_ her house was.

Scratch that. It was HUGE. Huger than huge.

It was definitely bigger than I remembered. They must have renovated recently. The complex seemed to have new buildings within its walls. A voice drew me over to the intercom.

"State your purpose," the voice, cool and with a hard edge to it, ordered.

"Ah, er... I'm here to visit Hinata... I have her homework..." I replied, trailing off a bit awkwardly. I didn't like the formal tone her family always went with, but it came with being one of the most prestigious families in Konoha. I felt bad for Hinata. She had so much responsibility riding on her shoulders in the future.

"Name," the voice ordered. It was a male voice, I realized. Probably Hinata's dad, even though the chances of that was highly unlikely.

"Haruno Sakura," I said, fingering my hair absently. I could hear faint mutters on the other end of the line. There was a click and the door opened. A man with dark hair and the same lavender eyes as Hinata stood there, dressed in a brown yutaka. I bowed politely.

"Come in," he ordered. I obeyed, and followed him through the yard into the main building. I pulled off my shoes with one hand (seeing as I was holding a bouquet of flowers in the other one) and left them in the foyer of the building, next to all of the other shoes.

Let me tell you: there were _a lot_ of shoes.

...Then again, there _are_a lot of people in Hinata's family, so the staggering amount of shoes would make sense. The nameless man who looked like he was related to Hinata walked away.

I sighed in relief. Hinata's family members tend to scare me.

I groaned when I realized that I was in Hinata's house... all by myself. Well, not exactly by myself... but you know what I mean.

I can count on _one hand _how many times I've been to Hinata's house before. And I have never gotten past the second finger.

That should tell you all you need to know.

So after about twenty minutes of frustration, I walked right past the foyer for the sixth time. I growled. This was so annoying.

"They need to install signposts or something..." I grumbled as I sat down in the foyer. "I can't find Hinata's room at all."

"That's because Hinata's room isn't even in this building," came a voice from behind me. I jumped and turned. Hanabi, Hinata's younger sister, stood there behind me, dressed in a pair of brown pants and a loose white t-shirt. She was probably at her martial arts training again. She and Hinata had self-defense training - since they were part of such a prestigious family, they needed to learn how to protect themselves, in case they were ever attacked or kidnapped for ransom or something along those lines.

"Hello, Hanabi-san," I greeted. The girl offered a small smile.

"Hello, Haruno-san." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as she bowed politely. Stupid etiquette.

There was a long pause. Hanabi was still giving me a small smile. I shifted the messenger bag to the other shoulder.

"Ah... I'm going to go look for Hinata's room," I said awkwardly, before an idea hit me. "Could you tell me how to get there?" I blurted out abruptly. Hanabi stared at me with those trademark Hyuuga eyes.

"I can show you," she said after a slight pause. I let out a sigh of relief. Thank the Lord, I could finally talk to Hinata. I needed to talk to someone - desperately. And Hinata was one of the only people I could trust.

Ino would have been a better choice, but she'd already proved that she hated me with every fiber of her being, if Inner Sakura's reaction was anything to prove that. I guess I'm hurt by that, but I can't bring myself to feel anything at the moment.

_Like I told Shikamaru yesterday: it's fine,_ I told myself. _It doesn't bother me. _Even though it obviously isn't 'fine.' And it obviously is bothering me.

_I'm just in denial, _I grudgingly admitted, frowning unconsciously.

"Haruno-san?" Hanabi asked, jolting me out of my thoughts. "Follow me," she ordered, pulling on her shoes and walking out of the front door.

I slipped on my shoes and followed Hanabi back out into the complex. Hanabi led me to a smaller building and opened the door. She took off her shoes and I did the same. I followed her up two flights of stairs. She turned to the left and kept walking. She paused at the end of the hallway.

I bumped into her shortly after, unaware that she'd stopped.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized immediately. Hanabi didn't seem to have noticed. She slid open the door to reveal Hinata, lying on her bed eating porridge.

"Your friend is here," was all Hanabi said before she walked away without glancing back. Hinata stared after her silently, even as she disappeared down the hall and out of sight. Then she sighed and looked down at her porridge.

I knew that look. It was her 'I'm-a-failure-and-I'll-never-get-anywhere-and-my-family-hates-me-and-I'll-never-reach-their-standards' look. The one that crossed her face every single time she saw Neji. The one that crossed her face every time she scored less than perfect on a test. And the one that crossed her face every single day when someone mentioned Hanabi's successes.

Hanabi was on student council. Hanabi had skipped two grades. She was leader of six different clubs and captain of every single sports team she was on. She was stronger, more agile, and more capable than Hinata. And Hinata knew it. As the oldest in the Main House, Hinata was responsible for running the family or handing that responsibility over to someone else. At the rate her self-esteem was going, she'd decide to hand it over sooner or later - or her father would revoke that right from her and do it herself if she didn't meet his standards.

And she was afraid of that happening, because she'd look more like a failure to her family than she already believed she was.

I crouched down next to her bed.

"Hinata?" I asked quietly. "You okay?" I mentally slapped myself after asking that. Stupid reflex. Hinata didn't look up.

"Yeah... I'm fine..." she mumbled.

Liar. I wouldn't be asking if she was okay if she didn't seem okay.

"Hinata, you're lying to me," I said accusingly, crossing my arms. "You don't need to lie to me, you know. I know that you're upset." Hinata looked up. She looked like she was ready to cry.

"If you already knew I was upset, why did you ask me if I was okay?" She demanded, eyebrows drawn together. I shrugged.

"Sorry, it was a standard question." She looked down again.

"Oh..." she said quietly. There was an awkward pause after that.

_Oh no, think quickly! Long silences are bad - especially if she's upset!_ I thought instantly, panicking.

"Are you still sick?" I asked. Hinata shook her head. A tear fell.

_Oh no, oh no, oh no... this is not good..._ If her family found out she was crying, they'd be furious. I tried to smile as best as I could.

"I brought a daffodil," I said, trying to be cheerful, placing the flower on her bed. _Distract her, distract her! _"I had to go to the Yamanaka's to get them." I glanced toward the door. Hopefully, no one was there to catch Hinata like this.

"Oh, thanks..." she said, giving me a weak, lopsided smile. Her eyes were still filled with tears. I watched her blink rapidly, trying to make them go away. She and I both knew the risks of her crying.

Last time it'd happened, she'd been forced to sit in a room for a whole day listening to lectures from the elders. She'd gone to school the next day looking worse than she had when I'd been forced to leave. Hinata was rarely ever happy anymore - unless she was around Naruto.

_Stupid Naruto, why can't you just realize that she likes you, huh?_ I thought irritably.

"...ura. Sakura!" I jumped in surprise. I hadn't realized that I'd spaced out.

"Sorry," I apologized. Hinata's tears were gone and a look of concern had replaced them. "Is something wrong?"

"Did you say that you went to the Yamanaka's?" She asked.

_Oh._ Right.

"...Yeah..." Hinata's eyes lit up.

"Does that mean you and Ino are friends again?"

Silence. The floor seemed more interesting all of a sudden.

"Sakura...?"

"No, it doesn't," I finally said. "Ino's a pig. I don't see why we became friends in the first place. I don't think we're going to be friends again -"

Hinata's eyes seemed to grow dull. "Oh..."

"- especially after what happened when I went there -"

"Wait." Hinata interjected. "What happened?" I stared at her.

"You know about my Inner, right?" Hinata nodded.

"Well..."

* * *

"They thought you were paying me to be your friend? That's just ridiculous..." Hinata said with a frown. "You don't remember what you did when you snapped?"

"Nope." And it bothered me.

"Do you know _why_ the shop was empty?" She asked.

"...I think Ino was supposed to be in charge of the shop, and it seemed like no one had been there. I don't think she was expecting anyone to show up, so she skipped on her duty and went to the mall - with Akiraku and the others, I bet." I frowned at that again.

"So Ino doesn't like you anymore?"

"I don't think she's liked me _ever_..." I muttered, remembering what she'd said. _I want to - no, not now... not in front of someone, that would be breaking my promise,_ I thought. Hinata offered me a small smile.

"It doesn't hurt or anything, does it?" I absently ran my hand along my stomach and winced a little. Yeah, it hurt still.

"...A little, but it's not a big deal." Hinata blinked. I got the feeling that wasn't what she'd meant. What else could hurt?

Well, that was a stupid question to ask myself - I already knew the answer. My feelings.

"They shouldn't have hit you," Hinata said quietly. "And they shouldn't jump to conclusions like that."

"Pfft. They _did_." I glared at the ceiling. Uchiha must _hate_me or something to do one little thing that makes me a complete bitch in everyone else's eyes. At least some people believed me, like Hinata and Shikamaru.

Shikamaru!

"Hey, Hinata, there's an open job on the newspaper, if you want it," I told her. Hinata's eyes flew wide open and she immediately began to protest.

"No, no! I'm a horrible writer, really, I can't write for my life! I don't think I can do it! Can't you just -" I cut her off.

"You're degrading yourself again. Hinata, I know you're talented, you _can_write! I've seen your writing Hinata, and it's _amazing_!" I could tell from her facial expression that she didn't believe me.

"...I..."

"Don't say you _can't_, Hinata, because you _can_!" I pressed on. "You're always telling yourself that you're not worth it, that you are a failure. For once, can't you try to prove that you aren't one? I'm your friend, Hinata. I know you better than your father does. And I know you can write."

She hesitated a little, and then smiled weakly at me.

"Okay, I'll try it."

* * *

I stopped in front of my house. The lights were on.

That meant Naruto was home. With his friends... _shit_. I forgot about that. The run in with Ino (and "friends") had completely wiped it from my memory.

The fact that Naruto and his friends were in my house meant that _Uchiha Sasuke -_ of all people - was in my house.

I growled under my breath, wondering why I hadn't simply stayed at Hinata's house.

Oh, that's right... her family would never let me. Her family doesn't trust _anyone_, especially the Main House daughters' friend.

With a defeated sigh, I opened the door and walked inside, locking the door behind me. I was instantly confronted by a barrage of voices.

"No way!"

"We have to decide -"

"...and the game -"

"What the -"

"So you want them to lose by -"

"Is that even possible?"

"...kind of game is this -"

_What the heck are they doing?_ I wondered, hesitating in front of the living room door. _Forget it, I'm just going to go to my room..._ I made my way to the staircase and headed up. Tenten was standing at the top of the stairs, eyebrows raised. Her hair was down, framing her face. She looked like she'd just finished a shower. She was clutching a towel and drying her hair with it.

"Do you have any idea what they're doing?" She asked me curiously, canting her head. I shook my head.

"Another one of their games again?" I offered. Tenten frowned.

"Not again... what are they planning on doing this time?"

"Well, last time, they had a bad movie marathon..." I had walked past the room once and witnessed them watching some Barbie movie. It... had been weird, to say the least.

"Oh yeah, I remember... I thought they were watching horror movies, what with all that screaming," Tenten remarked, glaring at her wet hair before attempting to dry it again.

"...Why aren't you using the hair dryer?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's missing - I think Naruto stole it," Tenten said absently.

"What...?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, considering he broke into my room last night," Tenten muttered.

"You too?" I asked, relatively surprised.

"Yup. What he plans to do with those clothes, I have no clue..." Tenten retreated to her bedroom as cries of outrage exploded from downstairs.

"What the hell!"

"No way am I going to agree to that!"

"...Troublesome..."

"Pft. Whatever."

"You have got to be kidding!"

"We do this every year!"

_...Okay... I'm really curious... but..._ Uchiha's _there, and I do NOT want to see him. I don't think I'd be able to keep my sanity if I did._ With that in mind, I entered my own room, locking the door behind me.

You may think I'm crazy, but as soon as I lay down on my bed, I started to tear up as my mind jumped back to the flower shop and Ami and... and Ino.

Automatic reflex, I suppose, from hiding myself in my room to cry all the time.

"Why am I crying, dammit! It doesn't matter anymore! I won't let it bother me! Stop crying!" I hissed furiously at myself after a few minutes of crying, lifting my head off of my pillow. My eyes trailed over to my bedside table, where that picture was, with the two of us beaming as if we didn't have a care in the world. With a cry of outrage, I sat up, grabbed the picture frame, and hurled it at the door, where it broke with a satisfying smash, falling to the ground in bits and pieces, the broken glass scattering everywhere.

With a short hollow laugh at the broken remains, I collapsed on my bed again and broke down, sobbing into my pillow.

Throwing that photo was like throwing our friendship away. I didn't decide to throw away our friendship. Ino did it herself.

Ten years of friendship. Gone - just like that.

I don't know if it can even be called friendship anymore.

* * *

**_Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 24 (final entry):_**

_I won't forgive you, Yamanaka Ino. Not until you tell me the truth._

_If Uchiha matters to you that much, then the last ten years we spent as friends meant nothing._

_Oh, and you can have your ribbon back, too. I don't need it anymore._

_I'm better off without it._

* * *

Okay, so that was sort of depressing. Sorry if you didn't like that and if it felt slow to you, because it did to me.

I would have thrown in a SasuSaku moment at the end, but I decided to save that specific moment for another chapter.

Let me know if the chapter doesn't seem to make sense.

Oh, and let me know if for some reason, words seem to be joined together when they're not supposed to be - the site seems to be combining words on its own.

Thanks for reading! Oh, and kudos to those who get the meaning of the chapter title.


	4. Hello

Okay, this chapter was late. I got writer's block halfway through. But Gaara's being introduced, so maybe that'll make up for it? (crosses fingers) Then again, this chapter's kinda boring... filler, basically.

To anonymousM: the actual chapter was supposed to turn out differently, but as I wrote it I realized that the SS moment wouldn't work in that chapter. I'm saving it for later.

If you notice any words that somehow combined together, please let me know. FFnet seems to be doing this to me recently.

Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_. Please don't be disillusioned and think that I do.

_Plagiarized_

_Chapter 4: Hello_

* * *

_Dear Sakura,_

_Hello._

_(no alias given)_

_Dear Hello,_

_Hi._

_--Sakura_

* * *

_**Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 25:**_

_While I was... (scribbled out) -- sleeping upstairs, the boys downstairs had been making bets. _

_From what I'd gathered from Naruto, the bets were:_

_Lose- Kiba, Shino, Chouji, Uchiha, Neji  
_

_Tie- __Shikamaru_

_Win- Naruto,__ Lee  
_

_Anyone that loses their bet has to dress up for Halloween at the winner's discretion. (_That _was why the boys had been freaking out downstairs.) Shikamaru informed me that there was another condition, and that it applied to one specific person, but he wouldn't tell me what the condition was._

_What were they betting on, you ask?_

_The upcoming soccer game against the top-ranked team in our league, Otogakure no Sato. The bets ranged from winning by three points to tying to losing by ten goals, which is totally feasible, considering the fact that it's Otogakure no Sato, which has the scariest coach (I swear he's a child molester) and incredible soccer players who are masters in the art of cheating._

_So not only are they good at soccer, they are also good at cheating in soccer._

_There's probably some joke for that, but I can't think of it right now._

_Anyways, this morning, I went over to the Yamanaka's and tied my red ribbon to their door handle._

_I would have given it to Ino-san myself, but I decided that another confrontation wouldn't be a good idea, simply because I don't know how well I can control my Inner self at the moment._

_Why am I calling her Ino-san, you ask?_

_Well, we're not friends anymore... a__re we?_

* * *

"GO GO GO!!" Was the cry from Naruto. "Shoot! No, what are you doing, Neji?! Go _that_ way!"

I sighed. Why was I here again? Why, oh _why_ did I let Naruto drag me to this Sunday afternoon game to torture me?

Okay, I'm over-exaggerating a little, Naruto didn't drag me, he 'politely' asked me. I wasn't being tortured, I was just really bored. And he wasn't the one that managed to convince me to come to the game anyways.

That honor fell to Hinata.

Now, Hinata wouldn't normally be at a soccer game, simply because her father wouldn't allow her to show support for her Branch House cousin who just so _happened_ to be on the team.

I personally think her father needs to get a stick shoved down his -

Okay, violent thoughts stop here.

Where was I? Oh, yes.

This could be potentially long story. Or not. It really depends on how fast you read this.

Remember that newspaper job offer that I had convinced Hinata to do? It seems that there was some miscommunication between Tsunade and Asuma-sensei.

The advice columnist was not moving away in a week. The _sports columnist_ was.

How can such a huge mix-up occur, you ask? I have no idea. I bet all that smoking has gone to Asuma-sensei's brain and all of that drinking Tsunade secretly does has gone to her brain as well. Also, Shikamaru is too lazy to actually verify the truth with the actual advice columnist.

Don't tell them I said that; they'd probably murder me in my sleep. That, and it's not true (to a certain degree, at least, don't tell them that either).

Shikamaru would never be able to get in touch with the advice columnist - he doesn't know who she is. Tsunade and Asuma-sensei know, but they aren't telling. The sports columnist had filed a letter saying he would be leaving and hadn't bothered to inform anyone on the paper about his leaving. Somehow, Asuma-sensei misread the letter and reported the wrong information to Shikamaru.

Tsunade discovered the mistake Saturday and had Asuma-sensei call Shikamaru to inform him, who was, at that point, sleeping through some G-rated movie at the movie theater with Naruto and friends and had his phone turned off, so all Asuma-sensei got from Shikamaru was an answering machine that went "Please don't leave a message at the beep - I don't wan't to call someone back, it's too troublesome," before the _beep_. Asuma-sensei had completely disregarded his shougi partner and left the message anyways, and Naruto had found the message on Shikamaru's phone when he'd stolen it from the sleeping boy on the car ride home and renamed all of his contacts with the help of Kiba. He'd told Shikamaru about the message when they'd reached our house.

Needless to say, Shikamaru was ticked off in a lazy fashion (because, for some reason, he can't be ticked off in a normal fashion), Naruto was in trouble, and he and Kiba were forced to help Shikamaru change cell phone entries like "Emo-loser-boy-who-needs-a-life" back to "Sasuke."

I personally think "Emo-loser-boy-who-needs-a-life" would have suited Uchiha just fine, but that's me.

Hinata, who was now stuck with the sports columnist job, had no clue what a sports columnist did, so she'd begged me, the ghost editor, to help her out.

As her best friend, I couldn't say no.

So, here I am. Naruto's screaming at the top of his lungs, Shikamaru's basically sleeping, and Hinata keeps turning pale every single time someone trips (considering how it happens one right after another, she's pretty comparable to a ghost at the moment). Chouji, Shikamaru's best friend, is at the game too, but he's currently pigging out on popcorn and chips. Real healthy diet.

I'm not enjoying the soccer game, by the way. I have no clue what offsides and PKs are.

On the plus side, Inner Sakura is staying absolutely silent today, so I don't have to listen to her complaints and death threats. Even though she's me, so the death threats and complaints are really mine... okay, I'm confused.

"Kick the ball!" Naruto screamed.

On the field, Uchiha - who is apparently an _amazing_ soccer player (note sarcasm) tripped and fell _very_ gracefully in his attempt to kick the ball.

I had to choke back my laughter, earning a strange look from Tenten, who had the added bonus of sitting next to Resident Loudspeaker: Uzumaki Naruto.

Mr. Dude With the Metal Arm (it's prosthetic), you are my hero for tripping Uchiha.

The current point total at the moment was 1-1. They were only about five minutes into the game, but it felt like an eternity.

I wish the game would end right now; I am so bored.

The whistle blew.

"Uchiha-kun!"

"Kyaa!"

"Over here!"

"OMG! Is he, like, okay?" (Yes, she did actually say the letters OMG. I take back what I said about them not being able to annoy me. They annoyed me, all right.)

Uchiha had been pulled out of the game for being injured. He was limping.

"Uchiha-kun! Are you okay?!" Was the horrified cry from the majority of the girls. If the game wasn't still in session, I think they would have stormed the field.

A tweet and the ball was kicked towards the Oto goal, Inazuka Kiba sprinting after it, wild spiky hair bouncing to the rhythm of his feet. The ball was stolen from Kiba and kicked in the other direction, Neji poised to kick it.

I glanced behind me. Hinata was frantically trying to take notes for her article. Shikamaru had a video camera on a tripod aimed at the soccer field, but was staring at the sky in a bored fashion. Chouji was still eating his chips. In the row in front of me, Naruto was practically jumping out of his seat, screaming. Tenten edged slowly away from the hyperactive boy, her eyes fixed on the game.

I groaned. This game was so boring. What do people see in soccer anyways? You kick a stupid black and white ball across the field and try and get it in the net. Fantastic.

There was a collective groan from Oto's fans as their team failed to reach the ball before Neji kicked the ball up the field and past the end line. Uchiha was on the bench, pressing ice to his leg. The girls were whispering among one another.

"I hope he's okay!"

"Do you think he'd go out with me?"

"He's so hot!"

I rolled my eyes.

_Just shut up already..._

A cheer came up from the Oto fans as they scored on us for the second time.

50 minutes to go. 20 until half time, and 30 after that.

Shikamaru muttered something under his breath that sounded oddly like "Troublesome..." and closed his eyes. Hinata was torn between the game and her notebook. Tenten's sharp eyes were trained on the black and white ball that was moving around the field. Naruto was screaming at the field.

"Sasuke-kun..."

"I love you!"

"You're my hero!"

I growled and stood up. I needed a break from all of this.

* * *

I exhaled slowly when I entered the bathroom. I had a headache from all of the screaming. Standing in front of the sink, I took a few minutes to study myself in the mirror. Without the ribbon, I seemed to look different. I _felt_ different.

Unconsciously, my hand shifted upwards to pat where the ribbon used to be. It was so strange not to have that ribbon; I had worn it for so long.

Still, it was a reminder of the friendship we had, and if I'd kept it, it would have meant we were still friends. If Ino-san didn't want to be friends, then we didn't have to be friends. It was her decision, not mine, and yet -

"Damn it..." I muttered under my breath.

_Why does it bother me so much?_

With an irritated sigh, I splashed my face with cold water, over and over again. The running water spilled over my hands, through my fingers and over the sides.

I felt like that running water suddenly, falling, unstoppable, and so very _cold_.

_"Loser!"_

_"Baby!"_

_"I hate you!"_

_"Go away!"_

_"Stop that!"_

_"Here, I'll give this to you. It's a gift."_

I shivered and turned off the water. I grabbed a paper towel and began to dry off my hands and my face.

_You're okay, you're okay. You just need to relax and forget about it,_ I thought.

_Liar_, I another part of me thought instantly. I tried to brush it off. I'm such a hypocrite. I hate liars but I'm a liar myself. Man, I have issues.

When I exited the bathroom, I spotted three people in the distance, talking. Two of them I recognized from school... and the other one I recognized from last year.

The Sabaku siblings. Temari, Kankuro... and Gaara.

Temari and Kankuro are in my class (if you don't remember) and Gaara... well, he's not in my class anymore. He was in my class last year, though. I knew quite a bit about Gaara, considering he used to be on the paper - in fact, he's the departing sports writer - and he was my table partner last year. All three of them are transfer students from Sunagakure no Sato, and Gaara would be transferring back at the end of this week, on Halloween. No one knew why - not even his siblings did.

Everyone at the school secretly had heaved a sigh of relief, though, because Gaara was generally considered scary and very creepy.

We'd spoken on occasion, (considering we were table partners) and gotten to know each other, but he really didn't talk often. In fact, he's a lot like Uchiha when it comes to socializing (the one-word standard, everyone), except Uchiha's a first-class jerk and Gaara is polite, even if he is scary (The other trait he and Uchiha seem to share is their friendship with Naruto).

Gaara just looks scary because he has insomnia, no eyebrows, and a blood-red tattoo on his forehead. The dark circles around his eyes are from the insonmia. The missing eyebrows are reportedly from when his dad burned them off. The tattoo is the character for love in Japanese (or Chinese, however you want to look at it), and he'd gotten it in memory of his mother, who'd died giving birth to him. He'd found out what happened to his mother during an angry outburst from his father two days before his 13th birthday. According to Temari, Gaara had disappeared and returned on his birthday with the tattoo.

No one had filed a missing persons report for him, simply because their father was _pissed_ and refused to do it, saying, "He'll come back, and when he does..."

He'd hit Gaara as soon as he walked into the door.

Great 13th birthday present, if you ask me.

The next day, Gaara submitted transfer papers to Konoha. Apparently while he was missing, he'd been at _our_house. How that happened, I had no clue, but apparently, Naruto and Gaara were friends or something. It had to do with some program they'd both been enrolled in as kids having to do with learning about demons and stuff like that...? Anyways, all I remember is that Naruto had come home with a nine-tailed fox plushie that he called Kyuubi and told me all sorts of folk tales about it, one involving it (the doll) being fused with a ninja that sounded a lot like Naruto in terms of personality and physical characteristics. I had rolled my eyes when he'd added that the ninja would become the "next Hokage," whatever that is.

Okay, I'm off-topic now. Where was I...?

Oh, yes. Gaara had been at our house during his two-day disappearance. Naruto had hidden him in his room and brought food upstairs for him. On the second day, he'd sneaked out of the house with Gaara to the tattoo parlor, where Naruto himself had gotten a couple of lines on his cheeks that looked like cat whiskers and a spiral tattoo on his stomach.

Now, mind you, the kid was 13. Mom and Dad had simply thrown up their hands in frustration after he'd come home with the tattoos (after sending Gaara off). I'd given Naruto a weird look, and he'd just laughed it off, saying "Oh, I just felt like it..."

Gaara had later told me that Naruto had gotten the tattoos to "share the pain" with him. Naruto's parents are dead too, so it makes sense... but, somehow... it felt like Naruto was trying to hide something from us, which seemed impossible. Gaara had shared the sentiment when I had told him that.

I approached them.

"Hey," I said, giving a small half wave. "Are you all here to watch the game?" They turned to stare at me. Temari nodded, her four pigtails bobbing with her nod. Kankuro just laughed.

"Why else would we be here?" He asked.

"You idiot," Temari said, smacking her brother upside the head. "You're supposed to answer the question, not ask another one."

"..." Gaara stayed absolutely silent, his pale green eyes staring at me.

"I hear you plagiarized Uchiha's paper," Kankuro said, rubbing the back of his head painfully. I glared at him.

"Well, I didn't," I snapped, crossing my arms.

"Well geez, don't get so snappy," he replied. Temari cut in.

"Everyone's saying you plagiarized his paper," she said. "Even your best friend, Yamanaka." She looked at me as if to gauge my reaction. I gave her a hard stare. I was not going to tell someone I didn't know very well exactly what transpired between Ino-san and me.

"It's all lies," I grumbled, glancing up at the sky, irritated. There were nice clouds to watch. Shikamaru must be having a field day. Gaara silently approached me. Temari and Kankuro exchanged looks.

"Sure," Kankuro said in a disbelieving tone. Temari smirked.

"Really?" She asked. "Well, that's good." Gaara was only about a meter away, staring at me.

"I believe you," he murmured quietly, still staring at me expressionlessly. I stared weirdly at him.

"What?" He couldn't be serious. Oh well. At least someone other than my two close friends (not including Ino-san, who's really not my friend anymore) believed me.

Gaara turned to the side, suddenly avoiding my eyes. He didn't say anything. I couldn't see his face.

Temari started laughing, earning weird looks from Kankuro and me and a blank stare from Gaara. When she stopped, she smirked at me again.

"Can we join you guys?" I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, can we watch the game with you guys?" Temari clarified. I blinked a couple of times. Kankuro had a grin on his face too. Gaara was staring at them both in silence.

_Uh... why?_ My mind asked absently, but I didn't say anything out loud.

I paused, wondering what was transpiring right in front of me.

"Uh... sure, if you don't mind being shunned by practically everyone," I said, with a shrug of my shoulders. Temari's smirk grew wider.

"Great! Let's go, you two!" She grabbed Kankuro by the ear, ignoring his "Ow, ow, ow"s and followed me, Gaara trailing behind silently.

* * *

"Oi, Sakura, where have you been? You missed the majority of the first half of the game!" Naruto greeted, glaring at me. "Oh, hi, Gaara," he added, when he noticed the redhead standing next to me.

Gaara just nodded in acknowledgment and sat down in a random seat. I took my original seat, which was next to the seat Gaara had just claimed. Temari took the empty seat next to a safe-looking Shikamaru instead of the one next to the hyperactive blond that would inevitably explode when the game started again. Kankuro sat down between Temari and Hinata, right behind Gaara.

The first half was still playing, but there were only two minutes left. Uchiha had been put in the game again, since his injury was apparently not serious. Many of the fan girls were happy to see him in commission again.

I, on the other hand, didn't care. As much as I didn't like Uchiha, I wasn't about to wish bodily harm on him. Embarrassment, yes. Injury? No.

I'm not that mean. At least _I_ have morals.

Unlike _some_ people I know.

I sighed and watched as one of the Oto defenders stole the ball from Kiba, one of the offenders, and kicked it. The ball hit one of his own teammates, and, to the surprise of everyone in the stands, bounced off him and into _their_ soccer goal. The goalie, who hadn't expected something like that to happen, didn't react in time, allowing the ball to slip past him.

"What the -" I heard Gaara mutter. Surprised voices from the Oto stands seemed to be thinking the same thing.

To my surprise, the only person who should have reacted who _didn't_react was Naruto.

The referee blew the whistle, ending the half. He then pulled out a card and marked the goal. The boys began to head towards their respective benches for their water bottles.

The cheerleaders appeared out of nowhere and started one of their practiced routines that made most of the guys go gaga. The "I Heart Sasuke-kun Fan Club" and the "Official Sasuke-kun/Anti-Haruno Sakura Fan Club" members (the difference between the two clubs being that one officially hates me and one doesn't 'officially' hate me, but hates me anyways) had abandoned the stands to go swoon over Uchiha, ignoring cries from the coach and the referee.

"Hey, Sakura, we're going to get food. You want anything?" Tenten asked, turning in her seat. "Oh, and you too, Shikamaru, Hinata, Chouji," she added, receiving a sleepy gaze from one and a panicked gaze from another. Chouji stood up.

"I'm going to go with you."

"Okay," Tenten said. "What about the rest of you?"

"If I leave now, I'm going to miss something important, I know it," Hinata muttered worriedly. Tenten shrugged.

"All right," she said. "Anything you want?"

"A Sprite would be nice," Shikamaru muttered from his seat. Hinata didn't reply, still taking notes.

"Get a water for her, I guess," I said. "I want Sprite too. How about you, Gaara?" He'd been watching our exchange with disinterest.

"Water," he said shortly.

"I'll get it," Kankuro offered from behind, standing up. "You want anything, Tem?" Temari blinked and looked up at him. He cocked his head at her, the question still lingering in the air. She sighed and stood up, shaking her head.

"I'll just come with you," she grumbled, pushing him out of the aisle and down the stairs. Tenten walked off, mentally reciting what we'd asked for in her head. Naruto trailed after her, pestering her with questions of "Will there be ramen?"

I stifled a giggle. Poor Tenten. Naruto was infuriating when he asked about ramen incessantly.

Gaara stared at me. I just smiled innocently at him. He continued to stare at me, and then appeared to try and shake himself out of a stupor.

"Something wrong?" I asked. He shook his head, glancing down so I couldn't see his face.

"Just surprised," he said shortly.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I demanded. He didn't reply. I frowned and stared at the field, watching the cheerleaders.

_They need to practice more_, I thought, wincing as one of the girls missed a beat. _Needs strength training_, I noted, seeing one of the girls faltering and weakening rapidly.

I could feel Gaara's eyes on me again.

Had I spoken aloud?

"_What_?" I demanded, rounding on him. Gaara looked quickly away.

"...nothing." I frowned.

"I won't take offense or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Gaara still wasn't looking at me. "I'm just surprised."

"Why?"

"Just... well... I thought you'd be upset. About the plagiarism accusations," he added blandly. Now this was a surprise to me. I didn't think Gaara cared about me. We weren't great friends, really, just acquaintances.

"I'm not that weak!" I snapped, glaring at him, suddenly realizing what he'd implied. "My pink hair doesn't mean anything!" _How is that related?!_ I asked myself, mentally slapping my forehead multiple times.

"Oh, really," he deadpanned, his expression still as blank as ever. If he was confused by my random addition, he didn't show it. "I don't think the pink hair has anything to do with it." That statement _sounded_ like sarcasm, but I didn't think it was sarcasm. Especially since most of his statements sounded sarcastic. However, I knew it was because he was acting emotionless.

Note the use of the word 'acting.' There's no possible way he could actually be emotionless... I think.

"When I was younger, that was all there was to it," I retorted, crossing my arms. That was all that had mattered to the girls and the boys that made fun of me (especially because there was _no way_ that it was natural, considering my mom's a brunette and my dad is blond). That, and my abnormally large forehead, which got better as I got older.

Gaara blinked a couple of times.

"I don't see anything wrong with pink hair."

"Well... it's an unnatural hair color," I pointed out. Gaara shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but someone cut him off.

"Hey, we're back!" Naruto cried out with a grin, holding a Styrofoam bowl of ramen and a pair of chopsticks. "And they had ramen!"

Shikamaru shot up in his seat, nearly smacking his head on the back of his chair, with a cry of "_What_? How is that even possible?"

I shook my head in disbelief. What were the chances of that?

Hinata managed a faint smile for Naruto's sake. "T-that's fantastic, Naruto-kun," she said, looking up at him. Their eyes met briefly, causing her to turn pink and look down at her notebook quickly. Naruto quirked his head in confusion, but turned to pester Chouji who'd appeared behind him, carrying an armful of chip bags and one large container of popcorn.

Tenten approached the group, plastic bag hanging from her wrist and a soft drink cup in each hand. She looked exhausted. She tossed the bag at me, which would've beaned me in the head if I hadn't ducked just in time.

"Hey!" I protested. _Classic comeback, Sakura..._I thought dryly as I placed the bag on my lap and opened it to see water bottles.

"Those are the water bottles," Tenten explained, walking over and handing me the soft drinks. I placed one in the cup holder and handed the other to Shikamaru, who took a long sip from it before putting it down in the cup holder. I handed a water bottle to Hinata, who was now trying not to look at Naruto at all. Gaara reached into the bag and took a water bottle for himself.

Tenten, Naruto and Chouji took their seats, but instead of sitting next to Tenten, Naruto sat next to Gaara and began talking with him. I moved to the row above us, sitting down next to Shikamaru, where Temari was sitting before. As a result, Temari confiscated my cellphone with a "Thanks for taking my seat, Haruno. I'm taking this as collateral," before claiming the seat next to me.

O-kay...

Kankuro sat down next to her, studying the field. The cheerleaders had left, and the referee plus the soccer players were herding their fans back to the stands so the next half could start. The fans were not about to go with a fight, until the creepy coach from Oto walked over with a pleasant (not really) smile and said something to them.

It seemed like they couldn't get to their seats fast enough, judging from the mad dash and the terrified faces.

...Now I want to know what he said.

It did take them a long time to reach their seats, though, so we still had a few minutes of no soccer.

Naruto was stuffing ramen in his face, which would probably keep him quiet for, oh... two minutes, depending on how much ramen he had. Hinata moved down a seat so that she was sitting next to me.

"I don't know why I agreed to this, Sakura... it's so difficult! I barely know anything about soccer." She looked worriedly at me.

"You could always ask Gaara," I suggested, indicating the red-haired boy. Hinata shook her head.

"I... I really don't know him," she admitted glancing at him. Gaara made no visible indication that he was listening, so she lowered her voice and added, "He scares me, too."

"He's not that bad," I whispered back.

"It's not how he looks, it's how he acts," Hinata muttered. "It's that blank expression of his - I've rarely ever seen him smile... or frown... or even lose his temper."

"Makes sense," I said. _Mental note to self: Get Gaara to smile_, I told myself. I'd have to try that today, or else I might not get a chance at all. "Oh, the game's about to start!" Hinata began panicking.

"Oh no, oh no! How am I supposed to do this?" She cried. Shikamaru, on my right, sighed deeply and leaned over so that he could see her past me.

"That's what we have the video camera for," he said, indicating the tripod. "You're only supposed to write down impressions. You rewatch the footage later for any play-by-play stuff you may or may not want to do."

"Oh..." She whispered, seeming to sink into her seat in relief.

"You couldn't have told her this earlier?" I asked.

"I was cloud watching," Shikamaru replied, as if that made all the difference in the world.

I rolled my eyes and leaned over to flick him in the forehead, receiving a brief glance that I couldn't read.

"Idiot," I said.

He just occupied himself with the clouds again.

* * *

_**Excerpt from Sakura's Diary, October 25**_

_I have never been to a soccer game before._

_I've never really seriously been into sports. I mean, I go to the dojo with Tenten, I watch a couple of sports games with Naruto, but that's basically it._

_Why am I bringing this up, then?_

_Well, before half-time, the game was a complete drag (I think Shikamaru's finally rubbing off on me). The interesting things that happened were 1) Uchiha getting tripped (that was hilarious) and 2) the goal that Oto scored on themselves right before half-time._

_I'm pretty sure that scoring on your own goal is something that you don't want to do. And yet... there was something off about that goal._

_The second half only got weirder._

_If you need to know, the final score was 10-1, Konoha's favor._

_I bet Oto's coach had something to do with the outcome..._

* * *

TWEET! Another goal by Oto on their own net. The goalie _appeared_ to be trying to save the goals, but I don't think he was actually trying. And those goals _looked_ like accidents, but I'm pretty sure they were purposeful. Although I think it would take a lot of talent to kick a ball right into a person, score a goal, and make it seem like a complete accident or coincidence.

Naruto seemed a little perturbed, but it wasn't evident that he was bothered by the game otherwise. Maybe it was because at this rate, he would be winning his bet and dressing everyone up in whatever outfit he wanted.

Temari was occupied with the cellphones she had taken from all of us and was not paying attention to the game. Kankuro didn't seem to care. Gaara was staring blankly at the field.

"This isn't normally what's supposed to happen, right?" I asked Shikamaru, who was ignoring me - or fast asleep. Hinata shook her head.

"I don't think so," she said. She still seemed to be writing quite a lot in the notebook she was holding. Frantic scribbles lined the paper. I couldn't read it at all.

"How are you going to be able to read that?" Hinata let out a nervous laugh.

"I... I don't quite know," she murmured distractedly, glancing up briefly to watch the game.

"You're not writing a play-by-play, are you? Because Shikamaru _is _taping this." I could tell from Hinata's sheepish smile that she was.

"Hinata... are you trying to make your life harder for yourself?" Hinata shook her head.

"No," she said slowly. "I'm just... taking precautions. The camera could break down or run out of batteries." Knowing Shikamaru, he'd already thought of that, but I didn't pursue the topic. Let Hinata do whatever she wanted.

"Sure," I said, shaking my head. The game was almost over. _Almost_.

Uchiha had been tripped again, causing many of the girls to swear vengeance on the player with the metal arm.

Poor guy. Now he had all of Uchiha's fans after him. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes... wait, I _am_ in his shoes.

"Ugh..." I grumbled, making a face. "Fantastic."

Uchiha left the field once again, once again starting the onslaught of questions and cries of "Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?"

A few minutes later, there was a whistle and the game was over. Thank the Lord.

The two fan clubs charged the bench again, to discover that Uchiha had disappeared. With groans of disappointment, they all left. The soccer players headed into the locker rooms to change.

Tenten stood up.

"I'm going to go ahead," she announced. "I need to get to my part-time job." Temari handed her her cellphone before she shoved herself into the crowd and disappeared.

Hinata followed, with a mutter of "I need an interview."

Shikamaru was putting away the camera. Chouji helped him fold the tripod up.

Temari was still fooling around with our cellphones and had apparently added Gaara's phone to her collection.

"Here," she said after a few minutes, handing me my cellphone, along with Hinata's.

"I hope you didn't delete all my contacts," I muttered, flipping mine open. She laughed.

"No, I didn't, I added our numbers. Make sure to call Gaara every once in a while," she added, patting Gaara on the shoulder. He just stared at her blankly.

"Uh... sure, I will," I said, probably looking as confused as I felt.

"You'd better," Temari said, wagging a finger at me. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"Yeah, okay, I'll try," I muttered, getting up to leave. I could wait outside. Plus, Shikamaru was taking forever. Temari shoved Gaara after me, and said good bye to Shikamaru before following with Kankuro in tow. I heard a cry of delight from Naruto as I walked past. I flinched.

"Yes! I win! Haha!" He laughed and started bouncing up and down in his chair. I sighed and tried to force myself into the crowd. It wasn't as easy as Tenten had made it look.

There was a groan from Chouji and an irritated sigh from Shikamaru.

"Troublesome..." was the last thing I heard before the crowd swept me up and away.

* * *

"Ow... where am I?" I muttered to myself, looking around. I'd forced myself out of the crowd, wincing at the new injuries I had. There were a couple of bruises on my leg and probably a bruise on my back.

I cursed my pink hair. My hair was what made it so easy to identify me. Some of the girls in the crowd had tried to injure me. I'd been tripped at least twice. The bruise on my knee could attest to that.

I noted that I was near the bathrooms, where I'd run into Gaara and the others earlier. I sat down on a nearby bench. There was a good chance that they'd get spit out the same way I did - minus the injuries, of course.

And sure enough, Gaara walked out of the crowd, looking slightly ruffled. He glanced back at the crowd with what seemed to be irritation. Then again, it was hard to tell, because when he turned back, I noted the deadpan expression that he wore.

"Did they trip you too?" I asked as he walked over.

He nodded minutely.

"Did they hurt you anywhere?" I asked after a few seconds. Gaara stared at me for another few seconds.

Another minute nod.

"Oh," was all I could say to that.

Cue long, awkward pause.

"Did you get hurt?" I found myself blinking in surprise. I debated on whether I should tell him. If I said no, I'd be lying, but I didn't want him to worry about it...

"Well, sorta..." I muttered quietly.

"Where?" He demanded as soon as the words left my mouth. Surprised, I reeled backwards. He stared at me curiously.

"J-just the knees," I replied, shocked. Wow, I was stuttering? This was new. Hinata must be rubbing off of me. Then again, I hadn't expected him to suddenly make the outburst.

Without thinking, Gaara had crouched down to study my knees.

Did I mention I was wearing pants today?

Which meant that Gaara was rolling up my pant legs. I winced inwardly. _Ow, ow, ow_...

I could see the creased brow. Even though he had no eyebrows, the wrinkles were still there. He was looking at the other bruises on my legs, the ones from earlier in the week.

"Liar," I heard him murmur when he saw the fading bruises on my legs. His eyes lifted to meet mine. I let out a huff and looked away.

He continued to roll up the pant legs until he'd rolled them past my knees. One of them was a nasty purple color, but the other had a faded bruise. He prodded the bruise and I winced, pulling away from him.

He looked up at me.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" He asked. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yes, it did," I said bluntly.

"It looks painful," he said after a few minutes. I resisted the _"Thank you, Captain Obvious,"_ response that I almost immediately fired.

"It was when I got it, and then it stopped hurting - until you _poked it_," I retorted, casting him a mock-glare. _Let's see if I can do this_, I thought, remembering my mental note.

"I said sorry," Gaara said, sounding irritated.

Hm. This shouldn't be _too_ hard, I hope.

I looked away from him, pretending to still be annoyed. I heard Gaara exhale sharply, but he didn't say anything.

I frowned. Gaara was not cooperating. However, I continued to look pointedly away from him. I spotted Naruto make his way out of the stadium, the crowd practically gone. He was dragging Uchiha by the sleeve.

"You have to make it up to me," I said finally. There was a long silence. Uchiha was staring at me. I pulled out my cellphone and began to pretend to fool around with it so I wouldn't be able to see those dark eyes staring at me.

"How?" He asked. I turned around and eyed him critically, feeling Uchiha's eyes on every movement I was making. What the heck? Was he stalking me or something now?

"Smile. Now." He seemed to be caught off-guard by this.

"What?" I crossed my arms, trying to prevent myself from grinning like an idiot. This might actually work. If I'm lucky, of course. "Are you serious?" He asked.

"Yes. Do it."

"And if I don't want to?"

"Then I can always think of something harder and degrading," I replied.

With a resigned sigh, he closed his eyes to compose himself. And then he smiled, an honest-looking smile that could probably disarm a whole army of Uchiha's fangirls.

In a flash, I aimed my cellphone camera at him and took a picture before he could react. I spent the next few seconds studying the picture.

_Wow, he's cute when he smiles. Whoa, did I just think that? Gaara and cute really don't work in the same sentence. Maybe handsome instead? Okay, stop thinking, now!_

Great. Without Inner Sakura, I was resigned to talking to myself. Not that talking to Inner Sakura was any different, but you get my point.

"You can stop now," I said needlessly, considering he'd stopped smiling right after I took the picture. Gaara had reverted back to his emotionless expression, but he seemed to be annoyed.

"Are you mad at me now?" I asked, secretly wondering if he didn't like his picture being taken.

He glared at me, but didn't say anything. I smiled at him to try and lighten his sprits, but the glare intensified.

"Sorry if you didn't like that," I added, quirking my head slightly, the smile fading from my face to make way for a frown. "Is there any way to make up for it? You're forgiven, by the way," I added as an afterthought.

The glare stayed on his face for a few seconds longer, and then vanished.

"Am I forgiven?"

Nod.

I smiled at him again.

"Thanks." _Why did I just say that? There was absolutely no point to that_, I thought, groaning mentally. Gaara offered a small (really really small, barely visible unless you know what you're looking for) smile back at me.

"You too," he said quietly. _Is he being shy? Weird._

I continued to smile, even as I spotted Uchiha staring at me again.

His dark eyes seemed to be radiating fury.

Hm.

Oh well. Who cares?

Not me, that's for sure.

* * *

**_Excerpt From Sakura's Diary, October 25:_**

_Naruto, Temari, and Kankuro finally reached the two of us. By then, the smile on my face had vanished and we were sitting in awkward silence._

_Temari continued to remind me to call Gaara, adding that he was my speed dial number 4 as she left. Hinata showed up shortly after, looking disappointed that she'd only managed to get interviews with the coaches._

_Anyways, on a different note, there's school tomorrow. If I'm lucky, the whole stupid thing will have blown over._

_Somehow, I doubt I'll be that lucky._

* * *

Haha... this is the second time I've ended with Sakura's diary. I'll have to stop that.

The next chapter's going to be a bit different, I'm writing it in a different POV. I'll talk more about it when I get to that chapter.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Nice to meet you

As I mentioned before, this chapter is written in a completely different point of view. You'll find that this person uses language a lot more freely than Sakura, and is very secretive/a complete hypocrite.

I will use this character occasionally, so be aware of that. But it definitely will not be every other chapter.

Language warning, chatspeak warning, chain e-mail warning, spam mail warning. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. (Rather pointlessly.) :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I don't own text messaging. I don't own e-mail.

_Plagiarized_

_Chapter 5: Nice to meet you_

* * *

_**Text message from 627-8868:  
**Where r u? I cant find u anywhere_

**_Reply from 728-7538:  
_**_Im doin work 4 the paper rite now, I'll c u in 10_

**_Reply from 627-8868:  
_**_Im going 2 come find u_

**_Reply from 728-7538:  
_**_Good luck w/ that_

**_Reply from 627-8868:  
_**_i did not find u in the rm, r u in the library? i need 2 talk w/ u_

**_Reply from 728-7538:  
_**_I'm in rm 253_

_**Reply from 627-8868:  
**__k im comin_

* * *

My hands flew across the keys as I finished up my piece for the newspaper. I stretched my hands after I'd finished and printed it. I grabbed the warm sheets off the printer and headed off to find Tsunade, the principal so I could turn this in and be done for the week.

Working on the paper wasn't something that I'd planned to do when I'd entered high school. My parents wanted me to take on as many extracurriculars as I could, but I really couldn't bring myself to do so. They want be to do this and that, and I try my best, but I don't always meet expectations, which always disappoints them.

Oh, you're probably wondering who I am.

Well, I'm not telling. Sucks for you. I prefer my secrecy, thank you very much. I don't talk often, and it's because I keep stuff hidden. My friends don't even know a lot about me. Obviously, they know my name, but you can't talk to them.

So my real name will stay a secret, because I don't trust you. Maybe if I trust you enough, I'll tell. But until then, my name's staying a secret.

What are you supposed to call me?

That's a good question. I'll have to think about that. I'll get back to you on that.

On my way to Tsunade's, I ran into Uchiha Sasuke's fan club. I don't know which one, they're both practically the same. They were muttering under their breaths and complaining about Haruno Sakura and her plagiarism of his article.

"We have to get her back somehow," a purple-haired girl was saying as I rounded the corner. "Ino, can you believe she did that?"

"Yeah," Ino replied, looking unsure.

"I sent some of our club to go deal with her today," the girl (Amu?) said. "Maybe it'll teach her a lesson. Oh, hey Sasuke-kun!" She cried immediately after, spotting the boy. The other girls swarmed around him, blocking the hallway. I glared at the girls as I walked through them, ignoring their "Kyaa!"s and "Sasuke-kun, I love you!"s. They were always so annoying.

Finally, I reached the principal's office and dropped the document off with her secretary, Shizune, who smiled at me, thanked me for my hard work, and sent me off, promising that my article would reach the Newspaper Club. I just nodded and left.

On the way down, I ran into Sasuke's fan club again. They were mobbing the guy and blocking the hallway... again. I kept my head down and tried not to look at any of them. I really should have taken a different route. I _knew_ those girls were there, why hadn't I just gone some other way? Sigh...

I darted into a nearby classroom to wait for my friend, who showed up minutes later, glaring at me.

"I was looking everywhere for you! I even went into the freaking library!" My friend (we'll just refer to this person as 'A') cried. I'm not telling you my friends' names either, by the way. You could be a stalker for all I know.

"Well, that's just too bad, huh?" I retorted, crossing my arms. 'A' continued to glare at me and began ranting about how long it had taken to find me for a good five minutes.

I rolled my eyes and didn't say anything.

By the time 'A' had finished ranting, it was 4:00. Which meant that it was time to head home. I left before 'A' could say anything else.

"WHY THE HELL DID I GO LOOK FOR YOU IF YOU WERE JUST GOING TO LEAVE RIGHT AFTERWARDS?!" 'A' demanded from inside the classroom.

"Hm. Who knows?" I called back, bolting down the hallway to escape 'A's wrath.

* * *

The next day was a painful affair. It was easy to see that both fan clubs had focused on enacting vengeance upon Haruno Sakura. I'd heard at least ten different rumors about her, ranging from the fact that she was adopted to her being a complete whore.

Then again, these all came from angry fan girls. All of them were probably false.

Anyways, Sakura was basically being assaulted and attacked and verbally abused. I saw her multiple times that day, and she didn't seem like she was cracking at all. She looked pissed though, because she kept glaring at everyone and everything. I'd heard that she and her best friend had had a falling out. Her best friend was Ino, the one from earlier who was in the fan club.

Speaking of fan clubs...

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Have my babies!"

"My zodiac sign is -"

"Ohmygod, marry me!"

I had to resist the urge to slam my head into my desk. The girls had come to annoy Sasuke again. I glared at them silently, but didn't say anything. My god, they were always so annoying.

The teacher, thankfully, kicked them out. Unfortunately, he had been about half an hour late. He spent the class getting us to introduce ourselves (again). My god, did he have short-term memory or something? He'd made us do this yesterday, since we changed classes!

What an idiot.

Must. Resist Urge. To. Slam. Head. Into. Desk.

Oh, hello, Sir Desk.

I swear the desk said "hi" back.

* * *

**_Sample of rejected e-mails recieved by advice(at)konohagakuen(dot)com - with commentary:  
_**Notes/thoughts by reciever

_**1)**Dear Sakura, you are gay and suck  
_Delete! Like I need 20 copies of this message.

_**2)**i hat u i can't believe u did tat 2 sasuke-kun u r a bitch and shud go 2 hell  
_Ugh... why does everyone think I'm Haruno Sakura? For god's sake, I don't think Sakura would be stupid enough to use her own name in a column...

_**3)**sakura i think youre hot i wanna date u lets go out sometime  
_Who the hell are you? And why'd you send this at least five times? At least give your name.

_**4)** Tired of being rejected? Look no further! -- message truncated --  
_I thought I wasn't supposed to get spam! Ugh...

_**5)** you are a bitch and you suck and i hate you and you've probably slept with 20 guys already  
_Figures I was going to get more of these. So nice too.

_**6) **This is So Scary, it Actually Works! -- skip -- send it to 15 other people, and your crush will ask you out!  
_Delete. Like my crush would ask me out anyways.

_**Total messages deleted in session: 78**_

* * *

Skip to Wednesday.

Lunch finally came around.

It was fine... until Sasuke's fan girls started pelting food at Sakura. Ami screamed names at her about five times. Then she hit her. Then other girls slapped her. Sakura glared at them for about five minutes as they continued to yell at her. Tsunade stormed in, furious, and threatened to give detention to anyone who continued to throw food.

Two Mystery Meats hit her. Those two idiots were in for it.

Sakura came to class later, looking extremely pissed, in a clean uniform, with cover up on her face. She was glaring at everyone. She stormed out of the room during break after she snapped at Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes.

Then the fangirls came back.

Arghhhhh - BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Sorry. That's me being frustrated and mentally slamming my head into the desk so that I don't look like a complete idiot in public. It is _not_, I repeat, _not_ cool when there are about fifty people - in the same room as you - screaming their heads off.

It hurts, for god's sake!

I think I'm going to go deaf in record time.

At least the teacher kicked them out. Actually, it was more like he scared them away by crashing through the sliding door proclaiming "DYANMIC ENTRY!!" with like five exclamation points.

The fan girls basically freaked out and bolted out the (now) broken door, screaming for their lives. The insane teacher had grinned at them (his teeth made a freaking "ping" sound effect) and then turned to grin at us (his teeth freaking blinded me).

So then he had a nice long discussion with us on YOUTH and the JOYS of YOUTH and how JOYFUL and YOUTHY (is that even a word?) they were. Then some kid who looked exactly like him, but smaller with really big eyes, got up with him and they started hugging and crying and hugging and crying. All to the backdrop of some wave crashing on to the sunset. Or at least an imaginary one. I don't want to know what will happen if some kid decides to rig the film projector to actually do that.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Please shut up. Please.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

I think we've established that their names are Gai and Lee and they're probably related in some ridiculous fashion.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Let's just skip ahead to the next day before I start losing brain cells.

* * *

**_Accepted messages by advice(at)konohagakuen(dot)com:  
_**Notes/thoughts by reciever (if any)

_**1)**Dear Sakura, I tend to be two sided when it comes to friend relationships..._

_**2)**Dear Sakura, I need help..._

_**3)**Dear Sakura, everyone hates me..._

_**4)**Dear Sakura, hello.  
_Well, that's friendly!

_**5)**Dear Sakura, I think what you did...  
_Finally, a well-worded letter! I'll have to reply to this one at some point.

_**6)**Dear Sakura, I want to meet people..._

_**7)**Dear Sakura, there's this guy...  
_Relationship advice. I'll take a stab at it, I guess.

_**Messages accepted during session: 7**_

* * *

The next two days were pretty quiet, because lunch had finally calmed down. None of the kids threw food at her, they basically glared at her pointlessly. It didn't seem to do anything.

After school, however, was a different story. I was starting my next article for the paper, when I heard the sounds of a fight outside and a woman with red eyes and dark hair glaring at a group of boys surrounding Sakura.

Scary. She looked ready to kill.

By 'she,' I mean the teacher. Sakura just looked tired and frustrated. The boys were dragged off to the principal's office. Sakura and her friend talked for a few minutes, before they waved goodbye and Sakura left. Her friend turned around and entered the school building.

A couple of minutes later, I heard weird noises in the hallway.

"What the...?" I muttered to myself, standing up and walking briskly towards the door.

I entered the hallway to see Sakura's friend on the floor, whimpering as the boys kicked her in the stomach. Assholes.

"What do you think you're doing," I demanded softly, my voice as cold as ice. The boys looked up to see me.

"Shit!" One of them cried, paling, pointing in my general direction. I walked slowly toward them, eyes narrowed, ready to hit them if I had to.

"Get away or get lost," a new voice said, just as coldly, from behind me. I could tell from the voice that it was Hyuuga Neji. He walked up and slid into a battle stance. The boys stared at the two of us in horror and bolted. Neji knew how to hit pressure points and knock people out in seconds flat. He wouldn't hesitate to use violence on anyone beating up his cousin.

"Are you ok?" I asked, crouching down. She was convulsing, and looked absolutely sick. "I think she's going to throw up..."

And right on cue, she heaved and threw up on the ground, moaning.

"I feel horrible..." I helped her up, avoiding the mess that she'd made.

"Here Neji," I said, walking her over. Neji leaned over to pick her up bridal style. He left, but not without saying "thanks."

"You might want to have her call in sick tomorrow," I called. "She needs to recover."

All I got as acknowledgement from that statement was a nod.

I shrugged and returned to the library to tell the librarian about the mess in the hallway. She nodded, picked up the phone, and called the office.

I returned to the computers and logged in to my e-mail.

Ugh. Chain mail. So stupid. It never works, anyways. All those claims of your crush confessing to you and whatnot. Do I have a crush? I did... but I'm not telling you if I still do.

Anyways, you're probably wondering what article I'm writing, right? Well, I'll tell you what I'm not.

I am not the sports article writer, the editorial writer, the local news writer, the fine arts club writer, the events writer, the random article writer, one of the freelance writers, the leader of the Newspaper Club, the principal, or **_Haruno Sakura_**.

From this list, you can probably guess what job I have on the paper.

Yep, that's right.

I am the advice columnist under the alias Sakura. Not that I picked the name. The name has always been with the job.

Not that anyone in the whole freaking school besides Sakura herself realizes that. They all assume (wrongly) that Sakura is the columnist, so I get all of her hate mail. Much appreciated. If they knew that they weren't sending it to Sakura, but to someone else, I bet the stupid fan girls (and probably fan boys - whoa, how creepy is that?) of Sasuke wouldn't be sending me these messages.

They're all very annoying, every single one of the hate mail messages. I don't resent Sakura for the messages, though. I blame whoever decided to name the advice columnist Sakura. I know that she didn't plagiarize whatever article she apparently plagiarized.

Okay, I don't _know_, per se. I'm pretty sure she didn't though. She wouldn't be so pissed otherwise.

Anyways, I pretty much got forced into this job, thanks to Tsunade. She approached me before school even started and basically gave me the job. I wasn't even the best possible candidate for the job, and she gave it to me anyways. Maybe it was for personal revenge or something.

(...Now what exactly could I have done to piss of the Great Lady Tsunade...?)

She probably just picked me because I'm a really unlikely advice columnist. The most obvious person to do the job would be Sakura, since, well, it _is_her name that I go by in the paper. The next unobvious person would probably be a guy.

And the most unobvious person would probably be that loudmouth, Naruto.

He's an idiot.

And now I'm going off on tangents.

So. I'll just tell you about my job as advice columnist.

Basically, I get access to the e-mail address that all of the advice requests are sent to. The e-mail is advice(at)konohagakuen(dot)com. Simple and to the point. The password can't be changed my me, it has to be changed by the administrator. The password is changed every year or any time someone manages to hack in (that only happened once, for the record).

I have a one-page maximum on the school newspaper. Sometimes I exceed it and I have to cut down, but most of the time I don't. My minimum is five questions. The first question and answer is usually a "hello, how are you" and "hi" thing, which I personally think is weird. However, it's a routine thing and Asuma adds it automatically when helping with editing. Don't ask me why, it's probably some "introducing the column" thing.

For example, this week's starts with

_Dear Sakura,_

_Nice to meet you!_

_(unsigned)_

_Dear --_

_Hi._

_Sakura_

Weird, right? It's always in some girly and bubbly font, too. But seriously, no one would send me an e-mail going "Nice to meet you!" because they probably _don't know who I am_.

I get a lot of personal e-mails from people about stuff they would never tell anyone in person. Those e-mails I generally reply to online, unless they specifically tell me that I have permission to publish the letter in the paper. The content in these personal e-mails can range from relationship problems to school problems to family problems, covering topics as serious as drugs and abuse. When the person writes to me, they're usually begging me to tell them how to solve their problem.

I generally try to convince the person to tell someone, and if they don't want to, I offer to do it myself by means of an anonymous letter. Most people take the first option, but sometimes, when they're really terrified, they will choose the second option - or don't do anything at all. There's honestly nothing I can do if they choose not to tell anyone.

I'm good at keeping secrets though. I've kept secrets for such a long time that I can barely remember the last time I was seriously honest with anyone, and that was way back when I was in elementary school, before I had my wake-up call.

I keep a lot of stuff bottled up. I once told someone that it wasn't healthy to keep things bottled up inside when they wrote me for advice.

Ha. I can't even take my own advice.

But then again, I can handle keeping to myself.

By the way, you'd better not go around telling people that I'm the advice columnist - wait, I haven't even told you my name yet, so the warning doesn't stand. Forget it.

Huh? You still want to know my name?

Well, I'm still not telling.

Maybe next time.

* * *

Yes, the character is cruel. Sorry, but that's how it's going to be for a while. You can make guesses, but I'm not going to verify them.

Opinions/reactions/thoughts on this chapter would be appreciated. If you liked it, then I will work this character in more. If not, then I'm only going to use the character when I need them.


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